The Fiorentina boss has quickly carved out a reputation for himself as one of the continent's top young coaches and is now in with a chance of a Europa League crown.He is not yet 41 and has exactly nothing in the way of silverware, but Vincenzo Montella’s coaching career so far has been a phenomenal success story. As his Fiorentina side head to Sevilla on Thursday for the first leg of their Europa League semi-final, it is hard to believe that anybody deserves the trophy more than the diminutive Italian.It was a record of 21 wins out of 21 as coach of the club’s youth side that convinced Roma to bring Montella up to the first team in February 2011 at the age of just 36. Claudio Ranieri’s mid-season exit had opened up the chance for L’Aeroplanino (the Little Airplane) at what appeared to be the perfect time for a fresh face.
Yet just three months later, the Giallorossi’s new American owners told him he was no longer needed. Six wins in 12 had resulted in an acceptable but underwhelming sixth-place finish, while Montella’s troops had also been dumped out of both the Champions League and the Coppa Italia without recording a win.His excellent record with the youth team wasn’t enough to persuade Roma to hang on to a man who had spent over a decade in the club’s ranks as both a player and coach. Instead, it was with Catania that Montella forged his reputation at the highest level and, after leading the Sicilians to an 11th-place finish, he was soon snapped up by Fiorentina.In Tuscany, his stock has risen remarkably. Only a controversial end to AC Milan’s final-day clash with Siena denied the Viola a Champions League spot in 2012-13, while another fourth-place finish and a reasonable run in the Europa League were achieved despite high-profile injury worries last term.
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