Athens Kallithea FC appoint Massimo Donati as manager

Athens Kallithea FC are pleased to announce the appointment of Massimo Donati as first team manager.

Donati, 43, made 314 appearances in Serie A for several clubs including Atalanta, AC Milan, Bari, and Palermo, plus another 72 appearances in the Scottish Premiership with Celtic and Hamilton, before retiring in 2018 and eventually emerging as one of Italy’s most impressive young managers, recently leading unheralded Legnago Salus to the Serie C promotion playoffs, with a record that included only two losses in the final seven months of the 2023/24 season and one loss in the calendar year 2024, standing out as the only undefeated team in all of Italian football from January until mid-April.

Born in Sedegliano, in the province of Udine, Donati began his playing career with Atalanta, helping the Nerazzurri achieve promotion to Serie A in 1999/00, and then impressing enough the following season to earn a transfer to Milan at age 20 in June 2001. After making 27 appearances for Milan in the 2001/02 season, playing under Fatih Terim and Carlo Ancelotti, Donati would go out on a series of loans over the next five seasons to Parma, Torino, Sampdoria, Messina, and Atalanta. In June 2007, Donati went abroad to join Scottish giants Celtic, where he would spend three seasons under Gordon Strachan, winning the Scottish Premiership and the Scottish Cup. Donati returned to Italy in August 2009, spending the next seven seasons with Bari (including under Gian Piero Ventura), Palermo (including under Gian Piero Gasperini), and Hellas Verona (under Andrea Mandorlini), before finishing his career back in Scotland with Hamilton and St. Mirren.

Following his retirement in 2018, Donati’s first coaching experience would come as an assistant to manager Angelo Alessio, who had been the longtime assistant of Antonio Conte, at Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership in 2019. After a short stint as manager of Sambenedettese in Serie D in 2021, Donati took over at Legnago Salus in June 2022, and he would lead the club to promotion to Serie C in the 2022/23 season, keeping the league’s best defensive record with 26 goals conceded in 34 matches. In the 2023/24 season, Legnago were tipped for relegation back to Serie D, but turned out to be the surprise team in the league, making a sixth-place finish and qualifying for the promotion playoffs after being nearly unbeatable through the second half of the season. From 4 November, Donati’s side would lose only two matches, include one to eventual champions Mantova. Until 13 April, Legnago were Italy’s only unbeaten team in the calendar year 2024. In the 2023/24 Serie C promotion playoffs, Legnago defeated Lumezzane in the first round, but were eliminated in the second round with a 1-1 draw away to the Atalanta U23s, as a result of being the lower seed.

Welcome, Massimo.