Francesco Calzona's return to the bench of Napoli would be a sensational return: he was, in fact, first the deputy of Maurizio Sarri in the era of great beauty, then entered Luciano Spalletti's staff. He left last season and accepted Marek Hamsik's proposal (who could follow him in blue) to lead the Slovak national team, with which he qualified for the European Championship. Calzona would keep the double role: the idea is to stay at Napoli until the end of the championship and then play the European Championship with Slovakia.
But who are the coaches who have simultaneously held the role of a club team coach and that of a national team coach in the past?
The Rules
The possibility of simultaneously holding these two roles depends exclusively on the regulations of each individual federation. For example, the FIGC explicitly prohibits it in Article 40, paragraph 4 of the Technical Sector Regulations: 'The Coaches Responsible for the National Teams of the F.I.G.C. and their deputies during the same sports season, cannot register or, independently of registration, carry out activities for companies, even with different tasks, unless the economic contract has not been mutually terminated'.
Different rules are those that govern the Slovak football federation which has already given consent for Calzona's dual role. The same can be said for the 7 previous football coaches who have been able to hold these two roles in the same period: Rinus Michels (Barcelona - Holland in 1974), Alex Ferguson (Aberdeen - Scotland in 1985/1986), Guus Hiddink (Chelsea - Russia in 2009), Dick Advocat (AZ Alkmaar-Belgium in 2009-2010), Fatih Terim (Galatasaray-Turkey in 2013), Miguel Herrera (Club America-Mexico in 2013) and Leonid Slutsky (CSKA Moscow-Russia in 2015/2016).
The Most Famous Case
The most well-known case is probably that of Guus Hiddink, who was hired as coach of Chelsea in 2009 while he was the coach of Russia from 2006. During the period of dual employment, he managed to win the FA Cup with the blues, while failing to qualify for the 2010 World Cup with the Russians.
Last year, there was much talk about the possibility that José Mourinho would simultaneously hold the role of coach of Roma and that of coach of Portugal, but the rumor did not materialize.
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