GABRIELE CIOFFTI FACTFILE

Born: Florence, 1975 (Age 43) Playing career: A 6ft 6ins central defender, Cioffi joined local side Sestese as a teenager and made his debut in 1992 at the age of 16. After two goals in 77 games, he sustained the first of three serious knee injuries and in mid-1996 joined Poggibonsi. The next seven years were spent battling injury in Italy’s regional lower divisions with La Spezia (55 appearances, one goal), Arezzo (19 appearances), with whom he debuted in the third Italian division, and Taranto, where he won the Serie C2 title. A move to Novara in 2002 brought a change of fortune, with sustained fitness, three goals in 78 games and promotion to Serie C1. Cioffi then joined Mantova, where he won promotion to Serie B. After a single season at Mantova, he was signed by Serie A side Torino in 2006 and made 18 appearances in the top flight, scoring twice. Cioffi saw out his playing days at Ascoli, AlbinoLeffe and Carpi before retiring in 2012, aged 37. Managing career: Cioffi began his coaching career as No.2 at Carpi and in July 2013 was named manager of Serie C2 side Gavorrano. Dismissed after four months, he joined Australian side Eastern United as an academy coach and also worked with Aston Villa’s technical director in Italy. Cioffi returned to Italy in 2015 to head up the youth team at Sudtirol, then worked as assistant to Henk Ten Cate at Al-Jazeera in the UAE. In 2016, he was named on the coaching staff of Gianfranco Zola at Birmingham City but left when the Italian was sacked after 24 games. Cioffi was named manager of Crawley Town in September.