Now it's also official: Rosario Pergolizzi will be the coach of Reggina 2024-2025. For him it is a return, having a past in Amaranth as a footballer between 1988 and 1990 (49 appearances and 4 goals).
Thirty-four years later he will be the man called to lead the team in the Serie D championship with the only acceptable objective: first place and a return to Serie C. A horizon that is certainly clear for a coach who was also chosen for his demonstrated ability to excel in the highest amateur tournament.
A mission that could go further, considering that the company has announced that it has signed a “multi-year” contract to the technician. It should be biennial.
“Welcome back Rosario Pergolizzi” was the message with which the club greeted the officialization of the new trainer. Shortly before, a video had been published on social channels in which the amaranth shirt worn by the Sicilian coach was taken out of a box when he played on the turf of what was then called Comunale as a left back.
Beyond the amarcord. Pergolizzi arrives in Reggio with a Serie C promotion he has just obtained in Campobasso. A first place in group F of Serie D achieved despite having taken over during the championship in progress. Just in time to put together eighteen wins, nine draws and only two defeats in twenty-nine championship matches. From his arrival onwards, no team has managed to keep up with the pace of the Molise team, in a balanced competition and with several teams with names that we are used to seeing in higher categories, such as Chieti, L'Aquila and Sambenedettese.
In the 2019-2020 season, however, he won Group I, dominating it with Palermo, although the season was interrupted early due to Covid. A point in common with Reggina who, in that same year, collected records with Mimmo Toscano on the bench and gained access to Serie B despite the stoppage of the championship.
Pergolizzi is a coach who has used various modules in his career, demonstrating an aptitude for enhancing the qualities of the team more than his own tactical dogmas.
In Palermo, between 2005 and 2010, he was also coach of the Rosanero Primavera (he was also coach of Ascoli in 2011-2012) and with the Sicilians he won a historic championship in the 2008-2009 season. A characteristic that makes him used to working with young people and we know how important it is to help the unders grow in the context of a Serie D championship.
His debut even before that had been as deputy in Ascoli and Bari as deputy of Bepi Pillon, another former amaranth. Then many experiences, not all of them successful, with some benches in Serie A (again in Palermo) and Serie B (Ascoli) with short assignments. In 2014 he chose to start again from the Amateurs, leading Marsala who won the Sicilian Excellence.