Roberto De Zerbi's Tottenham coaching staff and the 7 key men who follow him

The newest Tottenham Hotspur head coach has been formalising his coaching staff and there have been a band of men who have followed him before

Roberto De Zerbi will take charge of his first Tottenham game as head coach next weekend at Sunderland and that gives him a full week to prepare with his new-look coaching staff.

The 46-year-old has signed a five-year deal with the north London club as he looks to keep them in the Premier League and then turn Spurs' fortunes around for the long-term after two seasons spent at the bottom of the table, albeit with that Europa League trophy just over a year ago.

Part of the negotiations for bringing De Zerbi through the door will have centred on his coaching staff with the Italian often bringing a big backroom staff with him to clubs. There were reports in Italy that former Italy star Alessandro Nesta could park his head coaching career on one side to become part of his staff at Spurs, but there are now suggestions that the ex-centre-back may not be making his way to N17.

Ex-Tottenham midfielder Sandro, who was captain at Benevento under De Zerbi and completed a coaching internship at Brighton, has also been linked with getting a small role because of that association with the Italian.

FOLLOW OUR TOTTENHAM FB PAGE! Latest Spurs news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page

Bruno Saltor, Andreas Georgson, Cameron Campbell and goalkeeping coach Fabian Otte, along with youth pathway coaches Stuart Lewis and Dean Brill, were not mentioned as leaving the club when Igor Tudor departed so the new man may utilise some if not all of them.

In the main though, De Zerbi has used a core of seven coaches he has looked to in recent years and all eyes will be on whether all of them follow him through the door at Hotspur Way.

Here are the seven men who often form his staff:

Andrea Maldera

There have been some claims from the Ukraine, where Maldera worked for the national team for half a decade including as one of Andriy Shevchenko's analysts, that the 54-year-old might not be joining De Zerbi on this occasion after spells as his assistant at Marseille and Brighton.

That would be a shame as 54-year-old Maldera has plenty of experience in the game, including working under various coaches at AC Milan.

"This is my second season working with Roberto, but we have known each other for a lot of seasons, we are friends,” Maldera said when filling in for the Italian at a press conference at Brighton in 2024.

"My father was his coach when Roberto was in the academy of AC Milan and I worked for a lot of seasons at AC Milan and after that I worked with the national team of Ukraine. We spent a lot of time on the phone talking tactics because for me he’s one of the best coaches in this moment.

"When he was a coach at Foggia or Sassuolo, I was working at AC Milan and we spoke a lot about football and I studied his idea a lot. When he went to Shakhtar Donetsk we spoke about the Ukrainian players and we always had a big discussion about football. Two years ago he changed some people on his technical staff, he called me and I was very happy.

"For me it’s a dream. I am 53 but I am young for a second time with him and working in the Premier League. My life is two parts, the first is with AC Milan when we won the [Italian] league 2010/11 and played in the Champions League. But now with Roberto he has a big energy, a big passion, he involves you a lot. I become younger with him."

Enrico Venturelli

Venturelli has worked with De Zerbi at his three previous clubs, Marseille, Brighton and Shakhtar Donetsk, as one of his assistant first team coaches.

The 45-year-old, who speaks Italian, English, Russian and Spanish, has a broad experience base beyond football coaching as he was previously involved with FIFA and UEFA and was a project manager at three different Olympic Games.

Ricard Segarra

Another experienced head on De Zerbi's staff, the 56-year-old Spaniard was the Italian's head goalkeeping coach at both Marseille and Brighton.

Segarra was previously at Galatasaray and before that worked for almost two decades with Barcelona as the Catalan club's head of goalkeeping department, training the academy goalkeepers and then their B team stoppers. He has a master’s degree in Conditioning for Team Sports and also undertakes goalkeeping lectures around Europe.

Marcattilio Marcattilii

The wonderfully-named Marcattilio Marcattilii has been a constant at De Zerbi's side throughout his coaching career all the way back to his time at Foggia.

The 52-year-old fitness coach then followed him to Palermo, Benevento, Sassuolo, Shakhtar, Brighton and Marseille so the odds on him walking through the doors at Tottenham would seem high unless he has something else going on right now in his life.

While at Shakhtar, Marcattilii spoke about his relationship with De Zerbi and the other two fitness coaches.

"It happened seven years ago, when De Zerbi worked at Foggia. I started working during Roberto’s second season in the team, at the same time we teamed up with Vincenzo Teresa. After Foggia, we continued working together at Palermo and Benevento, later moving to Sassuolo where Agostino Tibaudi joined us," he said.

"I'm a fitness coach. With Vincenzo and Agostino, we are like one team. Mister demands that the players have an optimum physical form, so we coordinate our work with him."

He added: "You may have noticed that we do lots of ball work. That’s important, but we also have a goal - to increase the workload to improve the players’ fitness. Each of them has their own position, and based on that we can plan the work. We know all the players, their parameters, and therefore we can organise individual sessions for everyone to raise their level."

Vincenzo Teresa

As Marcattilii mentioned above, Teresa is another part of De Zerbi's trio of fitness coaches.

The experienced head of the group at 63, he has worked with De Zerbi since his Palermo days and then at every club since, so again the odds look good for him joining Tottenham .

Agostino Tibaudi

The final part of De Zerbi's fitness trilogy is 60-year-old Tibaudi who joined De Zerbi's staff at Sassuolo in 2018 and has been an ever-present since.

He previously worked at AC Milan, Sampdoria and Cagliari and spent a season at Chelsea at the beginning of the 2000s. He has a Master’s Degree in Science and Technology of Physical Activity in case you care to know.

Marcello Quinto

Quinto is a more recent addition to De Zerbi's staff, having worked with him at Brighton and Marseille as a technical coach. That's because the 40-year-old only retired in 2020 and coached within Fiorentina's academy after hanging up his boots.

The link comes because Quinto played under the new Spurs boss while at Foggia as a defensive midfielder.

Others who have worked with him

There have been others who have been on De Zerbi's staff in recent years but whether they join him or not will depend on their availability.

Davide Possanzini was his compatriot's assistant head coach as Shakhtar, Sassuolo and Palermo as well as one of his technical coaches at Foggia. However, he went off to begin his own managerial career and was in charge of Serie B side Mantova for a couple of years before leaving in December last year. He is currently without a club and is represented by CAA Base, the agency that is very strongly connected within Spurs.

At Marseille, Mario Rotondale was part of De Zerbi's conditioning staff. Michele Cavalli, born in Brescia like De Zerbi, was a technical coach with the new Spurs boss at Sassuolo and a methodology coach at Shakhtar. Giorgio Bianchi was also a goalkeeping coach for De Zerbi at both of those clubs.

Salvatore Monaco worked with him as a skills coach and head of scouting at Sassuolo before the former AC Milan scout took on similar roles at Shakhtar before joining him at Brighton in a scouting role. The 53-year-old has since returned to Shakhtar as their chief scout.

Paolo Bianco was a technical coach for De Zerbi at both Shakhtar and Sassuolo before joining Juventus and now is the manager at Serie B side Monza.

Andrew Crofts and Jack Stern both worked on De Zerbi's staff but remained at Brighton after his departure as the former still does to this day.