Former Inter Milan, Liverpool and Chelsea manager Rafael Benitez will return to Italy to take charge of Serie A club Napoli.
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"Rafa Benitez is the new manager of Napoli," club president Aurelio De Laurentiis said on his Twitter feed on Monday.
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The Spaniard replaces Walter Mazzarri who quit after the team finished second behind Juventus in Serie A this season to qualify for the Champions League.
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Mazzarri was in charge for just under four years, building a strong attacking side which twice qualified for the Champions League and won the Italian Cup in 2012.
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He said on resigning that he felt he had taken Napoli as far as he could.
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Benitez was in charge of Inter for the first half of the 2010-11 season after replacing treble-winning Jose Mourinho.
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With the team lying a modest sixth in December of that season, the Spaniard's job was under threat, but he appeared to earn a reprieve when he led them to victory in the Club World Cup in Japan.
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Benitez then angered Inter owner Massimo Moratti by demanding reinforcements and was sacked before Christmas.
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He then remained out of coaching for nearly two years until Chelsea hired him to replace 2012 Champions League-winning Roberto Di Matteo in an interim capacity.
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Benitez ended a seven-month spell at the London club earlier this month by winning the Europa League and finishing third in the Premier League, thereby qualifying for the Champions League.
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He won the Champions League and FA Cup with Liverpool and La Liga twice with Spanish club Valencia where he also won the old Uefa Cup.
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The 53-year-old may have to rebuild Napoli following media speculation that forward Edinson Cavani,
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Serie A's top scorer this season with 29 goals, is set to join one of Europe's wealthier clubs.
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On Wednesday, De Laurentiis said he wanted a manager who admired the frenzied southern Italian city but also played down the importance of the man in charge of team affairs.
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"For me, the coach has only a 15 percent influence over the team but the rapport he creates with the players is fundamental," he said.
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"The main characteristic of the new coach will be a profound love for Naples otherwise there will not be an agreement. Benitez is a polyglot and maybe he could learn the Neapolitan dialect as well."
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Although Napoli enjoy fanatical support, they have been successful only in patches.
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Their most impressive team was the Diego Maradona-inspired side in the late 1980s who won the club's only two Serie A titles as well as the Uefa Cup.