Early career Sacchi had grown up watching attacking sides, such as
Budapest Honvéd,
Real Madrid,
Brazil and the
Netherlands. He started his career managing his local club, Baracca Lugo, because he was not good enough to play for them. Of the challenge he faced, Sacchi said, "I was twenty-six, my goalkeeper was thirty-nine and my centre-forward was thirty-two. I had to win them over." He next coached at Bellaria before joining
Cesena, who were in the
Serie B, as a youth team coach. He then took over at
Rimini, who were playing in the
Serie C1, and almost led them to a title. He received his breakthrough when he moved to
Fiorentina as a youth coach. His achievements with the youth team earned interest from
Parma, who were then playing in Serie C1. He led Parma to promotion in his first season, and in the following season took them to within 3 points of promotion to
Serie A. Of greater importance to his time at Parma, however, was the team's performance in the
Coppa Italia; they beat
AC Milan 1–0 in the group stages, and beat them again 1–0 on aggregate in the first knockout round. This was enough to attract interest from Milan club owner
Silvio Berlusconi, who promptly appointed Sacchi as manager.
AC Milan In Milan, Sacchi again faced problems of credibility. The press argued that such an inadequate player could never go on to be a successful coach, and that even Berlusconi – who had played football at amateur level – was probably a better player. Sacchi wittily replied, "I never realised that in order to become a jockey you have to have been a horse first." Sacchi's success at Milan gained him two back-to-back
European Cups. Sacchi led Italy through the
qualification campaign to reach the
1994 FIFA World Cup. Despite losing their first match 1–0 to the
Republic of Ireland and finishing third in their group, Italy reached the
final (their first since
1982), where they were defeated by
Brazil in a
penalty shoot-out, the first ever shootout in a World Cup final. Under Sacchi, Italy qualified for
UEFA Euro 1996, but were eliminated in the group stage from a group which included the eventual finalists,
Germany and the
Czech Republic.
Later coaching and executive career After leaving his position with the national team, Sacchi returned to Milan to replace
Óscar Tabárez in December 1996. However, the second spell was unsuccessful with Milan finishing 11th in
the league and suffering its worst ever Serie A defeat, losing 6–1 at home to eventual champions Juventus. He later returned to Madrid, this time at the
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium as director of football at
Real Madrid for the
2004–05 season. ==Management style, reception, and influence==