Born in
Lograto (
Province of Brescia), started out playing in
his hometown club's youth system, and later played for Rovereto and
Portogruaro. Maifredi's coaching career began in 1976 with amateur side Real Brescia. He later served as assistant manager of
Crotone, and also had spells in the lower divisions of Italian football with
Lumezzane and
Orceana, as well as Pspitaletto, with whom he won the Serie C2, Girone B title during the 1986–87 season. In 1987, Maifredi was appointed as manager of
Serie B side
Bologna, under the club's president
Luigi Corioni. During his three seasons with Bologna, his attacking style of play proved to be highly effective; after joining the team, he helped the club win the Serie B title and achieve promotion to Serie A in his
first season, and later helped the team avoid relegation in his
second season, and subsequently qualify for the
UEFA Cup in
1990. Maifredi is most noted for his short spell with
Juventus, whom he joined after replacing
Dino Zoff in 1990. During his
only season in Turin, the club were known for their inconsistent performances. After a strong first half of the season, the club suffered a loss of form, during which they lost six games in a row. Maifredi was eventually sacked at the end of the season, following the club's failure to qualify for European football after placing seventh in
Serie A, also losing out 5–1 to
Napoli in the
1990 Supercoppa Italiana final; however, he managed to reach the semi-finals of the
Cup Winners' Cup and the quarter-finals of the
Coppa Italia. Following his disappointing spell with Juventus, over the course of his coaching career, Maifredi managed several clubs in Italy, such as Bologna once again,
Genoa,
Venezia, and
Brescia, among other teams, as well as having short coaching spells in Tunisia with
Esperance Sportive de Tunis, and Spain with
Albacete Balompié; however, he encountered less success with other teams. In 2005, Maifredi was on course to sign with
Lazio, but the club's supporters were not keen on Maifredi's appointment, and even demonstrated against it, which ultimately forced the club's president
Claudio Lotito to back down and appoint
Giuseppe Papadopulo instead. In December 2009, he was successively appointed as a technical consultant and later as the director of
Brescia Calcio. On 24 September 2013, after thirteen years since his last coaching appointment with
Reggiana in 2000, Maifredi returned to the coaching bench for a spare game, co-training with assistant coach Fabio Micarelli after Brescia's head coach
Marco Giampaolo failed to report for three days. The next day, Brescia appointed Maifredi as new head coach, thus ending a 13-year absence of his from head coaching roles into football. His period as a manager was only on a caretaker basis, as he left after only one game – a 0–2 loss to Latina – to leave room for new boss
Cristiano Bergodi. ==Style of management==