Why are Italian coaches dominating the sidelines at Euro 2024?

Italy continues a tradition at the European Championship with Italian coaches — this time five — in charge of national teams at the tournament in Germany.

Italy coach Luciano Spalletti is joined by Vincenzo Montella (Turkey), Domenico Tedesco (Belgium), Marco Rossi (Hungary) and Francesco Calzona (Slovakia).

With five of the 24 teams in Germany led by Italians, this tops the Netherlands' mark of having three coaches — out of 16 teams — at Euro 2008.

All but Tedesco studied at the Italian federation's coaching school, which is directed by former coach Renzo Ulivieri, who is also the president of the Italian soccer coaches' association.

"It is a great source of pride for all of Italian soccer and especially for our coaching school," Ulivieri said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"We think that our coaches are excellent, for two reasons: ours is a good school and then the coaches have a very educational apprenticeship within our leagues, both in the professional leagues but also in the amateur ones, where tactics play a huge part."

The strength is evident not only in the national teams but also at the club level. Carlo Ancelotti, one of the most famous Italian coaches, won his fifth Champions League title this month when Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the final.

Atalanta, under Gian Piero Gasperini, won the Europa League, beating Leverkusen 3-0. Only Fiorentina's narrow 1-0 loss to Olympiakos in the Europa Conference League final under coach Vincenzo Italiano prevented Italian managers from sweeping the European titles.

"The secret (to Italian managerial success) is our predisposition to the art of making the best out of everything, even in difficult situations," Ulivieri added. "An Italian-Neapolitan