A History of the National Women’s Teams Head Coaches

On the eve of Andrea Soncin's official appointment, the tenth coach of the women's national team since 1984, who will be presented next Thursday at the FIGC, we look back at the history of his predecessors.

Sergio Guenza was the first official head coach in Azzurre history, sitting on the bench at the first UEFA-promoted 1984 European Championships. This tournament marked the transition, at an international level before the FIGC had even created the Women’s Football Division (1986) at a national level. In the two matches against Sweden (Roma and Linkoping), Italy suffered 2 losses. Guenza, who had won 4 Scudettos and 3 Coppa Italia with Lazio Women, was replaced by Ettore Recagni, who led the Azzurre to the Mundialito in August. In fact, after five years with Recagni, who finished fourth at the 1989 European Championship, the FIGC recalled Guenza, who stayed until 1992 and returned from 1994 to 1997 after a season under Comunardo Nicolai. Guenza collected the best results in the Azzurre's history: two second-place finishes at the European Championships (1993 and 1997) following finals lost to Norway and Germany and the quarter-finals at the World Championship (1991, a feat equalled by Bertolini in 2019).

After one season each for Sergio Vatta, Carlo Facchin (who has the likely never-to-be-equalled feat of managing the National Women’s Team and 5 a side team) and Recagni again, the first female head coach came in the year 2000: Carolina Morace, the most successful female footballer in Italy’s history, who managed the Azzurri for 5 years (2000-2005). To follow her were two more men, Pietro Ghedin (2005-12) and Antonio Cabrini (2012-17) before the FIGC opted for another female coach, Milena Bertolini (2017-23), who managed to qualify for the 2019 and 2023 World Cups (two in a row for the first time) and the 2022 European Championships.