No Italian team can boast a former flag on the bench. The life and secrets of the coach of the best newly promoted
The concept of flag is something that is gradually fading in today’s football. A nostalgic term, which indicates a player capable of linking his name to a single team, with which he has reached the greatest goals of his career. Del Piero, Maldini, Totti, Zanetti … are just some of the most famous names of Italian football. But in the undergrowth of the province, in the city that often live on the reflection of their teams and cling to a player or a coach, idols are still created. What is rare is that someone is able to deal with a point of reference in both roles. This is the case, the only one in Italian professional football 2025-26, by Raffaele Biancolino and Avellino. That, after draging the Irpini with his goals, he is now experiencing a brilliant second life on the bench.
Chivu, Iori and other great exs
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The clarification is a must. Biancolino is not the only great former footballer to train a team with which he has done well. For example, Chivu, who wrote important pages of Inter’s history, also winning the Triplete. O Fabio Pisacane, who dressed the Cagliari shirt for 6 years. However, neither of them has inextricably linked its name to the single team. Manuel Iori, current Cittadella technician and protagonist in over 300 games with the grenade shirt, is also remembered for performance with other clubs. While Biancolino’s football life went parallel with some historical moments of Avellino, and consequently all the memorable parts of his career (except for the goal “of Cunning” in Foggia-Cosenza, snatching with the help of one hand the ball to the goalkeeper with the referee of the shoulders) arrived in green-and-whites. For this reason it can be defined as a firm point of Avellino, also in light of his personal life choices.
heavy goals
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Biancolino arrives for the first time in Avellino in January 2003, contributing to the first of the four promotions that he will live as a player with 7 goals in 13 appearances. It will be the first great turning point of his career, whose definitive consecration as a level striker will arrive in 2005. After a year at Venice he returns to the green -and -whites, being decisive in the second promotion in three years, first with a brace in the semifinal playoff in Reggio Emilia, then marking a legendary match for the club (and also for him, native of the Neapolitan Capodichino). Avellino-Napoli 2-1, 19 June 2005 at Partenio-Lombardi, with his goal to open the markings. A playoff final in 2007, on June 17, in the 3-0 victory against Foggia, to crown the best season of the career, with 25 goals, will be signed again. Third promotion in five years for an Avellino unable to keep the category, and which in 2009 will know the sporty tragedy of bankruptcy. With the python, this is the nickname of Biancolino, who after 2007 will wander in Serie C, still continuing to score.
A life in the shadow of Partenio
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Despite everything, the word “fine” of the relationship had not yet been written. In the 2012-13 season Biancolino returns to Avellino, going in double figures and contributing to the promotion in B of the Rastelli team. The last great player’s player ring. But with the city of Avellino the bond is too strong: the three children grew up there, find home near the “Partenio-Lombardi” stadium, and has many friends, in addition to the affection and respect of the fans. Thus, after attempting the commerce route by opening the Street Wear shop “Pitone 9”, he returns to the world of football, and obviously in the white-green paintings, taking on the role of accompanying manager in the 2017-18 season. Just in 2018 he will strengthen his bond with the city, in a case of news: by frapponing herself between a woman and her attacker, armed with a hammer, she will save her life. A prelude, certainly more serious, to the football fate of the years to come.
spring and jump
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After a few years of apprenticeship, in the 2022-23 season Biancolino takes on the guidance of the Spring Team of Avellino, militant in spring 3. The following year he will also be able to grasp the promotion, leading a close-knit and gritty group that almost follows the characteristics on the field of the former center forward. It will also have a way of sitting, for a game (2-0 lost against Viterbo), on the bench of the first team in October 2022, bridge between the exonerated Taurino and Rastelli bis. His fate changes Sunday 22 September 2024: after 3 points in 5 games, the white -green management exonerate Mr. Pazienza and the DS Perinetti. He needs a trusted man, who knows the square and is able to manage his moods. And so the D’Agostino family focuses on Biancolino, initially as an interim technician, then giving him long -term trust. The rest is chronicle: from the arrival of the python, Avellino wins 22 out of 29 games, with a frightening average points of 2.48, winning the championship and returning to B after seven years. Fifth promotion of the 21st century for Irpini, still with the signature of the former center forward, second best scorer of the white -green history behind Castaldo.
Exhitant beginning and future dreams
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Biancolino perhaps has only one great regret: in B as a player he has never recorded much. And then as a coach the time came to make up for it. Avellino admired so far is a gritty, eager team, which counts on hungry young people and some veterans. Who, driven by the enthusiasm of an entire province that lives on football, amuses having fun. 10 points in 5 games, 4 useful results in a row for the best start in Serie B even since 1990-91, when the wolves of Francesco Oddo put 3 wins in line (which were worth 2 points) and 2 draws. It is definitely early to draw sums or look to the future. But, undoubtedly, Avellino is the surprise of the start of the season in B, led by a revelation coach to the first experience at this level. That in the moment of need was the first thought of society and that you can now enjoy the fruits of one’s work. Always in the shade of Partenio, the football house of Raffaele Biancolino.
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