Giovanni Martusciello was born on August 19, 1971, in Ischia. He began to play football with Ischia Isolaverde and debuted in Serie C1 at 16 years of age. He would go on to play 160 games with Ischia with 6 goals all in C1 with the exception of a single year in C2 in 1990-91.
In 1995 he signed with Empoli in Serie C1 but in two years the club was in Serie A. In the first they won the League and the Serie C Coppa Italia. In the second they arrived second in Serie B. Empoli stayed in Serie A two years and in 1999 were relegated. The highlights were a goal against Lazio and one that gave Empoli their first win in Florence. He made 118 league appearances for the Tuscans.
In September 1999 he signed for Genoa in Serie B but did not fit in, so he quit after six months and signed for Palermo who were in Serie C1. In Sicily he did not play much due to injury. He then signed for Cittadella in Serie B and played for two seasons. His last four seasons of active football were with Catania in Serie B, Sambenedettese and Lucchese in Serie C1 and Pontedera in Serie D.
He started his managerial career at Empoli as assistant of the Primavera team. He became number two coach of the first team in 2010 helping out Alfredo Aglietti and stayed in this role for the following season too, despite four changes of manager. When Maurizio Sarri took over at Empoli he became part of the technical team and reprised his role as assistant when Marco Giampaolo was nominated head coach.
Martusciello took over the full managerial duties for the 2016-17 season. From 2017 to 2019 he worked for Inter as technical collaborator and when Sarri was called to coach Juventus, he became his assistant, a role he kept when Sarri moved to Rome.
During his third year in Rome, after the home defeat against Udinese, Maurizio Sarri resigned. Lazio had a problem in that there was no time to give the job to another manager so Martusciello stayed and took over for the single game against Frosinone which Lazio won 3-2. When the new manager, Igor Tudor, arrived after the game, Martusciello quit.
In the summer of 2024 he became manager for Salernitana but was sacked in November.
Lazio fans will always be thankful for Martusciello’s choice to help weather the storm after Sarri resigned. He could have gone, but he stayed to give a hand to the club and team in a difficult moment.
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