Fabio Liverani was a splendid play maker.
With a physique more like Jan Molby than Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and not being very quick, his ability with the ball was however exceptional.
Born in Rome on April 29 1976, he started his youth career in Rome with Lodigiani before moving to Palermo, Napoli and Cagliari. His professional debut came with Nocerina in 1996 but he soon moved to Viterbo in Serie C. With Viterbese he played until 2000 when he was discovered by Perugia.
With Perugia he proved to be one of the best midfielders of the Serie A and was also called up for the Nazionale.
Lazio bought him in 2001 and he played five years with the Biancocelesti. He was in the post scudetto squad but also in the squad in the early Claudio Lotito era. He was part of that extremely high potential team that despite not bringing home the goods in Campionato, was able to win the Coppa Italia in 2004. He was also a key member of the squad once all the star players had left in the early years of Lotito and his memorable pass in the January 6 2005 derby led Paolo Di Canio scoring against Roma at that same end 16 years after his memorable goal of 1989. In his last year with Lazio he helped the Biancocelesti reach the UEFA Cup qualification (which never materialised due to the Calciopoli scandal).
At the end of his contract he decided not to renew and signed up for Fiorentina as a free agent. He stayed in Florence for two years before moving to Palermo in 2008 where he stayed for three years. A number of injuries and a few difficulties with Palermo President Maurizio Zamparini translated into a troubled last year. In 2011 he moved to Lugano in Switzerland but he never played and decided to quit in November to become manager.
His career as head trainer has been moderately successful but slightly unlucky. He started as one of the youth trainers for Genoa and worked his way up to the first team in June 2013. He was sacked in September. In December 2014 he was called up by Leyton Orient in the English League One but left the club after relegation in 2015. After two years of inactivity, in March 2017 he was called up by Ternana who were bottom in Serie B. He led them to safety but then was not confirmed. In September he moved to Lecce in Serie C and in two years took them up to Serie A. They were relegated in 2019-20 and he decided to move on.
He signed a two-year contract with Parma in 2020, but the club was in a limbo due to an ownership changeover, and he was sacked in early 2021.
He is currently manager at Cagliari in Serie B.
Fabio Liverani played 165 games for Lazio (126 in Serie A, 17 in Coppa Italia, 6 in Champions League, 11 in Uefa Cup, 4 in the Intertoto Cup and one in the Super Coppa) and scored ten goals (6 in Serie A, 2 in Coppa Italia and 2 in the Uefa Cup).
In Nazionale he played three times, with a five-year gap between his second and third cap.
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | UEFA Cup | Intertoto | Super Coppa |
2001-02 | 27 (2) | 26 (2) | 1 | - | - | - | - |
2002-03 | 34 | 21 | 5 | - | 8 | - | - |
2003-04 | 39 (4) | 26 (2) | 7 (4) | 6 | - | - | - |
2004-05 | 30 (3) | 24 (1) | 2 | - | 3 (2) | - | 1 |
2005-06 | 35 (1) | 29 (1) | 2 | - | - | 4 | - |
Total | 165 (10) | 126 (6) | 17 (2) | 6 | 11 (2) | 4 | 1 |
Sources
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