From 1 July, 2024, Massimiliano Canzi will be the new Coach of Juventus Women. He has signed a contract to lead the Bianconere for two seasons, until 2026, and the Club have the option to extend his stay by an additional year.
Canzi joins Juventus off the back of an impressive spell in the men’s Serie C with Pontedera, who came up against Juventus Next Gen in Girone B. He took the reins in October 2022, and guided the Tuscan side to the playoffs in each of his two seasons, finishing sixth and ninth in the table. His first season at the club, having taken over with the 2022/23 campaign already in progress, saw him clinch Pontedera’s best-ever league finish in a professional division and saw Canzi take the prize of Serie C’s ‘Best Coach’ at the Gran Gala del Calcio.
But his spell in Pisa is just the latest chapter of a long journey in football. He was assistant coach to Mario Beretta with Siena, Lecce, Torino, Brescia, Cesena, Latina and PAOK. He then served as Cagliari Primavera coach from 2015/16 until March 2020, when he became assistant to Walter Zenga with the first team in Sardinia before taking coaching jobs with Olbia, Turris, and Pontedera.
Now, Canzi is ready to begin his second spell in women’s football, having previously worked with Sesto San Giovanni in the top flight back in the 2000/01 season. Now with Juventus, he will be aiming to add yet more historic chapters to a story that has seen the Bianconere win every domestic trophy on offer and, since the side’s foundation, claim at least one piece of silverware every season.
MASSIMILIANO CANZI'S WORDS
"I am very happy to be here: for me it is a great challenge, which comes at an important moment in my career, after four very positive years in Serie C. I have been a professional for 18 years, and have now chosen to open a new chapter of my life at an important moment in my career. I have known the world of women's soccer for a long time, which has also been part of my career, having coached in Serie A. I obviously had no doubts in answering the call from Juventus, because I have never worked in a club of this level: we will have the opportunity to compete at the top in more than one competition, and this is something that happens very rarely."
STEFANO BRAGHIN'S WORDS
"Canzi has gained considerable experience in men's football, his path in the men's ranks seeing him sit on the bench in top leagues with young teams that were not always favourites, as we will be in the first phase of this cycle that starts again,” said Stefano Braghin, Women’s Football Director. “In short, he has matured a number of different skills that make him a well-rounded profile with the right personality, experience and skills to restart after two years in which, beyond the results, we dispersed a lot of our winning identity in a sometimes excessive search for aesthetics at the expense of practice. If we add to these considerations the great humanity, seriousness and intellectual honesty that have accompanied Max in his coaching journey through all categories, I think we have managed to find a synthesis that is very close, if not entirely coincident, with the coach profile we had hypothesized before starting the selection phase."