Birthday boy Gabriele Cioffi named as new Crawley Town boss

Gabriele, who celebrates his 43rd birthday today, is a former defender who played extensively in Italy’s Serie B for 11 clubs, making nearly 400 appearances.

He turned to coaching in 2010 and has held a number of appointments, both in Italy and abroad including spells in the academy at Adelaide United in Australia and at Arabian Gulf League side Al Jazira.

Most recently, he was part of Gianfranco Zola’s coaching staff during his time in charge of Birmingham City in the 2016-17 season.

Director of Football Selim Gaygusuz said: “We had over 80 applicants for the vacancy and appointing a new Head Coach has been an exhaustive process which we started more than a week ago.

“We wanted a Head Coach with passion, dedication and someone who is prepared to work hard to improve our existing squad.

“In our extensive discussions with Gabriele we were impressed with his ideas and enthusiasm for the job and his short and long-term vision. He will inherit, in our opinion, the best squad we’ve had during our time in League Two and we are all looking forward with Gabriele to help take the club forward.”

Gabriele will be introduced to the media later today. He will attend tomorrow’s game at Lincoln City but the team will be taken by Filipe Morais and Jimmy Smith.

Look out for the first interview with Gabriele later today on www.crawleytownfc.com

He was Gianfranco Zola's first team coach at Brimingham City.

He played for a number of Italian clubs, including Ascoli and Torino, in a career that spanned 1992 to 2010