Antonio Conte Panchina d’Oro triumph Set Napoli Boss As The Best Manager In Italy
Antonio Conte wins his fifth Panchina d’Oro, confirming his status as Italy’s top manager after another title-winning season with Napoli.
Andrea Locorotondo
Updated on 02 February 2026
Antonio Conte Panchina d’Oro confirms Italy’s top manager
Like him or not. He is the best manager in Italy. Again.
Antonio Conte has hit the jackpot. His fifth Panchina d’Oro (Golden Bench) award.
After three consecutive wins with Juventus (from 2011 to 2014) and the Scudetto won with Inter (2020-21), the coach who led Napoli to their fourth title also won the Panchina award for the 2024-25 season.
Conte, who also won the Silver Bench award in Serie B with Bari (2008), was the clear favorite.
Conte has now won five times.
“Needless to say, it is always a great pleasure to receive this award because it comes from colleagues, from people who know what it means to be a coach every day.”
Antonio finished ahead of Gasperini (6 votes) and Fabregas (4 votes) with 20 votes.
“I want to share the award with the players, the staff, and everyone at Napoli,” said Conte succinctly.
Conte dominates vote ahead of Gasperini and Fabregas
Some voted in person and returned to the city for training (Vincenzo Italiano), Max Allegri was absent (tomorrow is Bologna-Milan), Enzo Maresca (world champion with Chelsea) gave a lecture (together with Andrea Trincheri before the awards ceremony) and won the Special Bench award.
“Representing the Italian school abroad,” says Maresca, “is a great responsibility: when you are in Italy, you don’t give the Italian school of coaches its due value, but it has a great and strong value,” concluded the now former Blues coach.
Napoli dedication and coaches gathering in Coverciano
The other awards: the Golden Bench for Serie B went to Giovanni Stroppa (Cremonese) ahead of Fabio Grosso (Sassuolo) and Pippo Inzaghi (Pisa); the Serie C award went to Fabio Gallo (Entella, now Vicenza), while the women’s five-a-side football Golden Bench award went to Giulia Domeichetti (Falconara), and the Serie A award went to Luciano Nicola Antonelli (Eboli).
The Silver Bench for Serie B Women’s went to Antonio Cingotta (for Ternana), who dedicated the award to Rocco Commisso, former coach of Fiorentina’s youth teams, while the Gold Bench for Serie A Women’s went to Massimiliano Canzi (Juve).
Special awards went to Massimiliano Favo (winner with Italy U17) with the double “Favini Award,” reserved for Maurizio Viscidi (coordinator of the Italian youth teams) and Massimo Tarantino (best youth sector manager, Inter).
Andrea Locorotondo
Andrea Locorotondo is an Italian sports journalist. He has been living in the UK since 2015 and he is accredited by the SJA and AIPS. In addition to his role as contributor for FootItalia, he has demonstrated his ability to effectively cover a range of positions in sports journalism. Former Sportitalia TV journalist back in 2014, he is currently employed as a data journalist for Opta and Sportsdata. He is the team leader of Italian commentators at GBVision. He collaborates with EA Sports and frequently appears as a guest on Italian radio and television shows, including RDS Serie A TV and La Fiera del Calcio, where he shares his insights as a Premier League expert.
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