A quick look at the career of Benni Carbone who was this weekend linked by the press as being the next manager of dirty Leeds. Benni came to prominence in his native Italy, playing a year or so at several teams before making a name for himself helping Napoli reach the UEFA Cup. A move to Inter Milan followed the same year they signed Roberto Carlos and Paul Ince, he was handed the no.10 shirt and played regularly. The move turned sour when Roy Hodgson took over as manager and signed Ivan Zamorano from Madrid, he then started to play Carbone wide right rather than behind the strikers. Carbone complained, Hodgson signed Djorkaeff to play right wing and subsequently flogged Carbone to Sheffield Wednesday. Carbone enjoyed several good years at the Owls, striking up a good bond with compatriot Paolo Di Canio on and off the pitch, but this led to a divide in the Wednesday dressing room between the Italians and the rest of the squad, and Benni moved on to Aston Villa. Carbone spent one year at Villa and claimed an FA Cup runners up medal, despite falling out with boss John Gregory when he moaned he was homesick. Obviously not too homesick his next move was to Bradford City where he promptly suffered relegation to the Championship in his first season. Although Carbone opted to help Bradford back up, they found themselves midtable in October 2001 and it was announced the club would look to loan him out rather than carry his £40,000 a week wages. Derby County, then 3rd bottom of the Premier League, and in manager Colin Todds word looking to bring someone in to give us more momentum going forward offered Benni the chance of a 3 month loan. Carbone managed 1 goal in 13 games for the Rams, but was never likely to get an extension once his former boss John Gregory took over at Derby. Instead he moved on to Middlesbrough, coincidentally managed by Steve McLaren, on loan, but failed to earn a permanent deal and in summer returned to Italy with lowly Como. It is notable that he tore up his contract with Bradford and saved them from going into administration by giving up over £3m in wages. His year at Como led to a move to cash strapped Parma as a cut price replacement for Adrian Mutu, but he made limited impact and eventually drifted down the leagues ending his playing career at Series C Pavia in 2010. An opportunity to move to Australia in 2006 was ended after 4 matches as a guest player for Sydney as he pulled a hamstring and no agreement. After his retirement Benni became Under 19 coach at Pavia, and was quickly promoted to first team coach during a turbulent season where he earned the nickname of Harry Potter after saving them from certain relegation. This led to a shock move to Serie B Varese, but it was to be short lived as he was sacked in October after less than 4 months in charge. His next job was at Serie C side Saint-Christophe Vallée d’Aoste where he again did well to move them away from the relegation zone before quitting in 2013 due to restrictions placed upon him. Since then he claims to have rejected several Italian roles, and has been actively seeking a job in the England. He came close to landing the Sheffield Wednesday job before Stuart Gray hit a good run of form as caretaker manager and ended the possibility. Now it seems Leeds could be his next destination. Quick trivia: Carbone has worn custom shinpads since his days at Napoli, one features an image of Maradona and the other Roberto Baggio.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 15:07:59 +0000