[4] A former defensive midfielder, as a player he spent almost his entire club career with AC Milan, where he won two Serie A league titles (1961–62 and 1967–68), and two European Cups, in 1962–63 and 1968–69.

One of the most celebrated managers in football history,[5] Trapattoni is one of only five coaches, alongside Carlo Ancelotti, Ernst Happel, Tomislav Ivić and José Mourinho, to have won league titles in four different European countries; in total, Trapattoni has won 10 league titles in Italy, Germany, Portugal and Austria.

[8] Similarly, in the team's 4–1 victory in the 1969 European Cup Final against Ajax, he drew praise in the Italian media for his defending and ability to nullify the offensive threat of Johan Cruyff.

[2] Most notably, he was part of the squad at the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile, although he was unable to play any matches during the tournament after sustaining an injury.

[21][22] Apart from winning the European Cup over Liverpool in 1984–85,[23] Trapattoni came close to conquering the trophy on another occasion, in 1982–83, but Juventus suffered a surprising defeat at the hands of Hamburg in the Athens final, finishing as runners-up.

[33] The club's board of directors decided to dismiss him in February 1996, after a string of bad results; Trapattoni was thus fired for the first time in his career.

With Trapattoni's expert guidance, Fiorentina made a serious challenge for the title in 1998–99, finishing the season in 3rd place, which earned them qualification to the Champions League, also reaching the 1999 Coppa Italia Final, but losing out to Parma.

[44] Prior to the tournament, Trapattoni was surrounded by controversy after he omitted fan favourite Roberto Baggio – who had recently recovered from injury – from Italy's final 23-man squad, as he believed that the player was not yet fully fit.

[48][49] Italy lost 2–1 and were eliminated from the World Cup, conceding an equaliser two minutes from full-time and losing in extra time with Ahn Jung-Hwan scoring the golden goal.

The game was highly controversial with members of the Italian team, most notably Trapattoni and forward Francesco Totti, suggesting a conspiracy to eliminate Italy from the competition.

[50] Trapattoni even obliquely accused FIFA of ordering the official to ensure a South Korean victory so that one of the two host nations would remain in the tournament.

[52] Following the team's exit, Italy were criticised in the Italian and International press for their poor performance and ultra-defensive playing style under Trapattoni, who also came under fire in the Italian media for his tactics, which included initially refusing to play two of the team's star playmakers – Alessandro Del Piero and Francesco Totti – alongside one another during the tournament, and substituting a forward – Del Piero – for a holding midfielder – Gennaro Gattuso – in the second half of Italy's round of 16 match, in order to attempt to defend their 1–0 lead against South Korea.

Denmark internationals Jon Dahl Tomasson and Jesper Grønkjær openly criticised their coach, claiming he was afraid to attack.

[66] At the end of the season, the club's board of directors unanimously decided to dismiss Matthäus, and Thorsten Fink became Trapattoni's assistant manager.

Former Ireland midfielder Liam Brady was expected to be part of the Italian's backroom staff,[69] while Marco Tardelli was confirmed as Trapattoni's assistant manager.

Red Bull Salzburg confirmed, on 13 February 2008, that at the end of the 2007–08 season, Trapattoni would be leaving the club to take over as the Republic of Ireland manager.

[80] Replays of the French goal showed that Thierry Henry had twice used his hand to control the ball and was in an offside position before crossing for Gallas to head home.

Early in 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification, Ireland suffered a 6–1 defeat to Germany at home with a severely depleted team available.

[89] On 29 May 2013, Trapattoni's Ireland side faced off against England for the first time in eighteen years at Wembley Stadium in a match which ended 1–1.

Trapattoni parted ways with the Republic of Ireland national team on 11 September 2013 by mutual consent, after a defeat by Austria effectively ended their chances of qualification for the 2014 World Cup.

[92] His first match as manager was played on 23 October 2010 when Vatican City faced a team composed of Italian financial police.

His father Francesco, a native of Barbata near Bergamo, worked in a silk factory and as a farmer, and died when Trapattoni was 18;[95][96][97][98] his mother Romilde was a homemaker.

[96][99] A devout Roman Catholic, Trapattoni regularly attends Regina Pacis Church in his hometown of Cusano Milanino whenever he is home[95] and is a cooperator of Opus Dei.

[106] In January 2011, Italian media reported that he was at home recovering from a mild stroke he suffered during a surgery on 28 December 2010, which had caused him partial paralysis.

"Considered one of the greatest and most successful managers of all time, Trapattoni is highly regarded for his man-management, motivational and organisational abilities, as well as his tactical acumen, being referred to in international media as "the King of Catenaccio"[109] or the "Old Fox".

[110] He is known in particular for his direct management style and use of rigorous, innovative tactics, while his teams are usually known for their mental strength, organisation, and use of prepared set plays; Trapattoni was the main author and practitioner of the "zona mista" style of play (or "Gioco all'Italiana"), which was regarded as an evolution of the more traditional and defensive-minded Catenaccio system, which had been popularised in Italy by one of his major influences as a manager, Nereo Rocco; Rocco's tactics mainly focussed on sitting back and defending, and subsequently scoring on counter-attacks with few touches after winning back the ball.

[4][5][21][111][112][113][114] Although Trapattoni was known for his defensive minded approach as a manager, his teams often made use of a ball–playing sweeper or libero – with good technique, vision, and an ability to read the game – who was responsible both for defending and starting attacking plays from the back, as well as a creative and skilful offensive playmaker in midfield behind the forwards.

[5][134] During his managerial stints abroad, his sense of humour, coupled with his difficulties with the local language, won him a significant amount of popularity with both fans and the press.

A press conference which took place on 10 March 1998 while he was in charge of German club Bayern Munich has become known among German fans: in a speech riddled with grammar mistakes and involuntary neologisms, most famously using Ich habe fertig (German uses the verb sein ['to be'] and not haben ['to have'] to express 'I have finished'/'I am done') and Schwach wie eine Flasche leer ('weak like a bottle empty'),[30][135][136][137] he soundly attacked many of his players, including Mehmet Scholl, Mario Basler and Thomas Strunz, whose last name sounds like stronz in Trapattoni's native Milanese dialect of Lombard, a swear word equivalent to Italian stronzo ('asshole' or 'piece of shit').

[138][139] In a 2011 interview, Trapattoni himself explained his famous outburst thus: There are certain situations in life when you need to raise your voice, and that press conference was one of those occasions.