Trapattoni began coaching at
A.C. Milan, first as youth coach, then as caretaker, and as first team coach in 1975. He then moved on to
Juventus in 1976 and from there to
Inter Milan in 1986, obtaining great successes at both sides. He returned to Juventus in 1991 before taking his first job outside Italy, as coach of
FC Bayern Munich in 1994, and then from 1996 to 1998. He is well remembered by German fans for an emotional outburst in broken German during a press conference on
10 March, 1998 (
"Was erlaube Strunz?"..."Ich habe fertig!") where he criticized the team's attitude ("
Diese Spieler waren schwach wie eine Flasche leer!"). He also coached
Cagliari (
1995) and
Fiorentina (1998 to 2000, leading it to secure a
UEFA Champions League place).
In July 2000 Trapattoni took charge of the
Italian national team after the resignation of
Dino Zoff. He led the team to the
2002 FIFA World Cup. In that tournament, after winning its first match against
Ecuador, Italy's form dropped and they lost to
Croatia controversially and almost lost to
Mexico, with
Alessandro Del Piero scoring the equalizer. In the second round, Italy was expected to easily defeat
South Korea, but was however defeated in one of the biggest upsets in the FIFA World Cup history.
Despite referee
Byron Moreno being blamed as the main reason for Italy's exit, disallowing a goal and sending off
Francesco Totti by a controversial decision, Trapattoni was also blamed for playing an over-defensive brand of football and not taking arguably who was Italy's most gifted player
Roberto Baggio.
At
2004 European Championship Italy once again failed to shine, having performed with dreaded defensive tactics. They drew to both
Denmark and
Sweden leading to an early exit. On 25 June 2004,
Marcello Lippi was named as Trapattoni's successor, and took over once Trapattoni's contract ran out on 15 July 2004.
On
5 July, Trapattoni was named as new coach of Lisbon club
SL Benfica, whom he led to win the Portuguese league for the first time in eleven years, and also to the cup final (which Benfica lost to
Vitória F.C.). He resigned after the 2005 season, saying he wanted to be closer to his family (in the north of Italy) and returned to Germany with
VfB Stuttgart, with much hype about his appointment. However, during his 20 games at the helm,
Stuttgart showed poor form with 12 draws, many of these as 0-0 results.
Denmark international forwards
Jon Dahl Tomasson and
Jesper Grønkjær openly criticized their coach, claiming he was afraid to attack. Trapattoni responded by putting both on the bench, but was fired himself the very next day on
9 February 2006, based on "not fulfilling the ambitions of the club". He was replaced by
Armin Veh.
Over the past 25 years, Trapattoni has won nine league titles, a
European Cup, a
Cup Winners' Cup, three
UEFA Cups, the
Super Cup and two
Italian Cups.
In May 2006,
FC Red Bull Salzburg announced it had signed Trapattoni as its new Director of Football, along with one of his former players,
Lothar Matthäus, as coach. Trapattoni initially cast doubt on this report almost immediately afterward, claiming he had not signed any contract. But three days later, both he and Matthäus signed and made their hirings official. After their successful season of 2006/07, the club's board of directors unanimously decided to dismiss Matthäus, making
Thorsten Fink Trappatoni's new assistant.
