Italian coach Antonio Conte has had a mercurial career. Widely considered one of the best managers in the game currently, he has also burned plenty of bridges along the way.
A longtime Juventus player during his career, Conte would rise to his first big managerial job with the same club in 2011, taking over for Luigi Delneri and establishing the already giant club as a dominant force in Italian football.
However, his departure from the Turin side was acrimonious and was the first notch in Conte’s eventual reputation as a coach who can achieve big highs but also experience cavernous lows.
Since leaving Juventus, he has managed to engineer a victory against his old club just once in six tries. Having signed on to lead Napoli for the coming season, Conte will hope to better that record as his new side travel to the Allianz Stadium to face a club he still holds dear.
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Why did Antonio Conte leave Juventus?
In July of 2014, Antonio Conte departed Juventus by mutual consent, a surprising turn of events after spending three years in charge of the Turin club.
Conte did not give a direct reason for his departure at the time but hinted that he felt the club’s transfer business had not been sufficient enough to keep them at the level he desired.
“I have matured with time and my feelings led me to make this choice,” Conte said in a statement following the departure. “It may be more difficult to keep winning with Juventus.”
It was a bittersweet parting of ways, as Conte had spent 13 years at the club as a player and three more as coach. Even so, he was replaced by Massimiliano Allegri within hours, who began a five-year spell in charge of the club plus another three in a second stint shortly thereafter.
The departure was also the first in a number of messy exits from clubs due to Conte’s frustration with transfer activity. He would also leave Tottenham in May of 2023 after tensions grew with chairman Daniel Levy’s transfer business, while his previous departure from Inter Milan also resulted from disagreements over transfer activity.
Antonio Conte trophies won at Juventus
While in charge of Juventus, Antonio Conte won a host of domestic trophies and helped maintain the club’s decade of Serie A dominance.
He won the Scudetto in all three years and triumphed in the subsequent Supercoppa Italiana twice, although he failed to win the Coppa Italia even a single time, only reaching the final once in 2012 where they would fall to Napoli 2-0.
Juve’s 2011/12 title win saw them go through the entire league season unbeaten, becoming the first Italian side to enjoy an ‘invincible’ campaign since the league expanded to 20 teams and 38 matchdays. It also marked the start of an astonishing nine consecutive league titles for the Bianconeri under Conte and Allegri.
In each of his three full seasons in charge, Conte won the Panchina d’Oro, the award given to the best coach in Serie A.
Antonio Conte trophies won as coach at Juventus
- Serie A title: 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/24
- Supercoppa Italiana: 2012, 2013
- Coppa Italia: 2011/12 (runner-up)
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Why Antonio Conte joined Napoli
Following Napoli’s magical Scudetto-winning season two years ago, it was surprising to see manager Luciano Spalletti leave that summer.
As Spalletti took over the Italian national team, his former club would struggle in his absence, ploughing through three managers the subsequent campaign as the team sputtered to a miserable 10th-place finish, the worst title defense in Serie A history.
At the end of the season, Francesco Calzona was the third and final manager to be let go, following Rudi Garcia and Walter Mazzarri. Consistency and expertise was needed to right the ship, so the club called in Antonio Conte.
Right out of the gates, Conte began to ruffle feathers. A season-opening defeat to Hellas Verona caused Conte to question his players’ mentality, and he shocked the global football community when he left Victor Osimhen out of the club's registered squad at the end of the transfer window, resulting in his move to Turkish side Galatasaray on loan.
They have since turned things around, beating Bologna, Parma, and Cagliari by a combined 9-1 score.