Ciro Ferrara (; born 11 February 1967) is an Italian former footballer and manager. Ferrara spent his playing career as a defender, initially at Napoli and later on at Juventus, winning seven total Serie A titles as well as other domestic and international trophies.
His most recent position was as manager of Wuhan Zall. He had also previously coached Juventus and the Italy national under-21 team. As an assistant coach to Marcello Lippi, he won the 2006 FIFA World Cup with Italy.
At international level, he earned 49 caps for the Italian national team and represented the team at the 1988 Summer Olympics, at two UEFA European Championships, in 1988 and 2000, and at the 1990 World Cup.
Club career
Napoli
thumb|150px|left|Ferrara with [[SSC Napoli|Napoli during the 1987–88 season]]
A native of Naples, Ferrara began his career with the youth system of hometown club Napoli in 1980. He graduated from the primavera youth squad in 1984 and began to earn first-team call-ups that season. He made 14 total appearances with the club in his first full season. The following season, Ferrara became a part of the starting XI, and he soon began earning call-ups to the Italy national team, making the squad for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He also scored one of Napoli's goals as they won the 1989 UEFA Cup final. In addition to the UEFA Cup, with Napoli he won two Serie A titles (in 1986–87 and 1989–90), the 1987 Coppa Italia final, and the 1990 Supercoppa Italiana, the latter over his future team, Juventus. In 1988, he was a member of the Italy team that finished in fourth place at the 1988 Summer Olympics after reaching the semi-final.
Style of play
An elegant yet powerful and aggressive defender, Ferrara was known throughout his career for his composure, anticipation, technical skills, ball-playing ability, versatility, and class, which enabled him to play anywhere along the back-line, both in the centre, as a man-marker ("stopper"), or as a full-back, usually on the right flank, and allowed him to adapt to various formations and systems. A world-class defender, who is regarded as one of the best Italian centre-backs of his generation, Welsh former winger Ryan Giggs described Ferrara and his defensive teammate at Juventus Paolo Montero as "...the toughest defenders [he] played against", also adding that they were often very hard in their challenges, while Polish former midfielder Zbigniew Boniek has stated that Ferrara was the best defender he ever faced. Described as a precocious talent in his youth, Ferrara later established himself as one of the best defenders in the world in his prime. He was considered to be a complete, experienced, consistent, cautious and successful defender, with a good positional sense, who was quick, athletic, strong in the air, a good tackler, and who excelled at reading the game and marking his opponents; In addition to his defensive skills, he was also known for his offensive contribution as a centre-back, In spite of his tenacious playing style, he was also known to be a fair and correct player. In addition to his ability as a defender, he was also known for his professionalism, leadership, strong personality, and his commanding presence both on the pitch and in the dressing room.
Coaching career
Ferrara was part of the Italian technical staff for the 2006 World Cup. After winning the World Cup, he became part of Juventus' staff, joining former club and national teammate Gianluca Pessotto, with Ferrara being named youth system chief (responsabile settore giovanile), dealing mostly with organisational aspects of the Juve academy. In July 2008, Ferrara took the UEFA Pro License coaching badges following training at Coverciano, Florence. After Juventus fired Claudio Ranieri following a string of seven league games without a win in the 2008–09 season, Ferrara was named interim head coach of Juventus on 18 May 2009 for the remaining two weeks of the season, with the goal of maintaining second place in the league table, and the possibility of being appointed on a full-time basis for a longer period. In his two games as caretaker manager, he led Juventus to 3–0 and 2–0 wins over Siena and Lazio respectively, thus ensuring a second-place finish over rivals Milan. Following these results, he emerged as a strong candidate to take the job permanently for the next season. On 5 June 2009, Juventus formally announced his appointment as manager for the 2009–10 season.
During the summer, the team was then strengthened with high-profile signings such as Brazilian internationals Diego and Felipe Melo; 2006 World Cup champions Fabio Cannavaro and Fabio Grosso in defence; and young Uruguayan international Martín Cáceres, on loan. After winning his first four league matches, Ferrara's fortunes changed after Juve failed to make the knockout stage of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League following a 4–1 defeat by Bayern Munich at home in a match where a draw would have awarded Juve the qualification to the following phase, despite a promising start to the campaign. Despite a win over Derby d'Italia rivals Internazionale, Juve embarked on a losing streak over the winter, notably against minor teams such as Sicilian side Catania and recently promoted Bari. He came under intense scrutiny from the media and there was much speculation about who would succeed him as manager, especially after he was absent at the traditional meeting of all Serie A managers, coaches and referees in Rome during mid-season and was instead represented by then-Juventus director of sport Alessio Secco and 23-year-old midfielder Claudio Marchisio at the press conference.
Six days later, Juventus were knocked out of the Coppa Italia by Inter 2–1 at the San Siro, leading the board of directors to ultimately sack Ferrara after weeks of speculation regarding his position, replacing him with Alberto Zaccheroni until the end of the season.
On 22 October 2010, Ferrara was announced as new head coach of the Italy under-21 team, with former teammate Angelo Peruzzi his assistant. Under Ferrara, the Azzurrini remain unbeaten in the 2013 UEFA European U21 Championship qualifiers as of June 2012. On 2 July 2012, he left the country's U-21 side to coach newly promoted Serie A side Sampdoria for the 2012–13 season. However, he was sacked on 17 December 2012.
Personal life
With his fellow Neapolitan friend and former defensive teammate Fabio Cannavaro, Ferrara has helped establish a charity foundation, Fondazione Cannavaro Ferrara, specialising in the procurement of cancer research equipment and surgery for special cases of cancer for a hospital in their native Naples. The foundation also aims to help at-risk youth in Naples.
Career statistics
Club
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
|-
!rowspan="2"|Club
!rowspan="2"|Season
!colspan="3"|League
!colspan="2"|Cup
!colspan="2"|Continental
!colspan="2"|Other
!colspan="2"|Total
|-
!Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="11"|Napoli||1984–85||rowspan="10"|Serie A||2||0||0||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||2||0
|-
|1985–86||14||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||16||0
|-
|1986–87||28||2||8||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||38||2
|-
|1987–88||23||1||7||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||32||1
|-
|1988–89||27||0||8||0||12||1||colspan="2"|–||47||1
|-
|1989–90||33||0||6||0||6||0||colspan="2"|–||45||0
|-
|1990–91||29||2||8||2||3||0||1||0||41||4
|-
|1991–92||32||1||2||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||34||1
|-
|1992–93||31||4||5||0||3||0||colspan="2"|–||39||4
|-
|1993–94||28||2||0||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||28||2
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!247!!12!!46!!2!!28!!1!!1!!0!!322!!15
|-
|rowspan="12"|Juventus||1994–95||rowspan="11"|Serie A||33||1||7||0||9||1||colspan="2"|–||49||2
|-
|1995–96||31||3||1||0||9||0||1||0||42||3
|-
|1996–97||32||4||3||0||11||0||2||1||48||5
|-
|1997–98||17||1||2||0||5||0||1||0||25||1
|-
|1998–99||18||0||2||1||3||0||0||0||23||1
|-
|1999–00||31||1||1||0||9||0||colspan="2"|–||41||1
|-
|2000–01||23||1||1||0||6||0||colspan="2"|–||30||1
|-
|2001–02||22||3||4||1||4||0||colspan="2"|–||30||4
|-
|2002–03||25||0||0||0||12||1||0||0||37||1
|-
|2003–04||17||1||4||0||4||0||1||0||26||1
|-
|2004–05||4||0||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|–||5||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!253!!15!!26!!2!!72!!2!!6!!1!!358!!20
|-
!colspan="3"|Career total
!500!!27!!72!!4!!100!!3!!7!!1!!680!!35
|}
International
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year
|-
!National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="14"|Italy
|1987||3||0
|-
|1988||4||0
|-
|1989||7||0
|-
|1990||5||0
|-
|1991||6||0
|-
|1992||0||0
|-
|1993||0||0
|-
|1994||0||0
|-
|1995||6||0
|-
|1996||4||0
|-
|1997||8||0
|-
|1998||1||0
|-
|1999||1||0
|-
|2000||4||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total!!49!!0
|}
Coach
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!rowspan="2"|Team
!rowspan="2"|Nat
!rowspan="2"|From
!rowspan="2"|To
!colspan="5"|Record
|-
!G!!W!!D!!L!!Win %
|-
|align=left|Juventus
|align=left|
|align=left|2009
|align=left|2010
|-
|align=left|Italy U-21
|align=left|
|align=left|2010
|align=left|2012
|-
|align=left|Sampdoria
|align=left|
|align=left|2012
|align=left|2012
|-
|align=left|Wuhan Zall
|align=left|
|align=left|2016
|align=left|2017
|-
!colspan="4" align="center" valign=middle|Total
|}
Honours
Player
Napoli
- Serie A: 1986–87, 1989–90
- Coppa Italia: 1986–87
- Supercoppa Italiana: 1990
- UEFA Cup: 1988–89
Juventus
- UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1999
- UEFA Super Cup: 1996
- Intercontinental Cup: 1996
- UEFA Champions League: Runner-up: 1996–97, 1997–98, 2002–03
- UEFA Cup: Runner-up: 1994–95
Italy Olympic Team
- Summer Olympic Games: semi-finals: 1988
Italy
- UEFA European Championship: Runner-up: 2000
- FIFA World Cup: Bronze Medal: 1990
- UEFA European Championship: Bronze Medal: 1988
- Scania 100 Tournament: 1991
Individual
- ESM Team of the Year: 1996–97
- FIFA XI (Reserve): 2000
- Premio Nazionale Carriera Esemplare "Gaetano Scirea": 2003
- Pallone d'Argento: 2003
- Juventus FC Hall of Fame: 2025
Orders
:* left|50px 5th Class / Knight: Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 1991
:* left|50px 4th Class / Officer: Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 2000
Assistant coach
Italy