Pellegrino Matarazzo

Pellegrino Matarazzo (born November 28, 1977) is an American professional soccer coach and retired player.

He was previously a youth coach of 1. FC Nürnberg and 1899 Hoffenheim. In December 2019, Matarazzo was appointed head coach of VfB Stuttgart. He has lived in Germany since 2000.

Early life

Matarazzo was raised in Fair Lawn, New Jersey to Italian immigrants. He has three younger brothers: Leo, Frank, and Antonio, all of them were in a Napoli fanclub at the time Diego Maradona played there. Leo and Antonio also played at Columbia. He played several sports growing up, including basketball and volleyball due to his height, but saw the most success in soccer, being a four-year varsity starter for Fair Lawn High School, leading them to the state tournament as a senior for the first time in nearly twenty years. He went on to play at Columbia University, where he earned a degree in applied mathematics in 1999.

Playing career

After his graduation from Columbia, Matarazzo decided to go for a career as a professional soccer player. After failed trials at Serie B club Salernitana based in his mother's hometown, Salerno, and Serie C club Juve Stabia in Italy, he signed in Germany's fourth division with Eintracht Bad Kreuznach. Between 2001 and 2005, Matarazzo played for Wehen with a year at Preußen Münster for the 2003–2004 season, as well as Wattenscheid and Nürnberg's reserve team. Later, Matarazzo served as assistant coach while playing for Nürnberg II at the same time.

Coaching career

Matarazzo worked many years at Nürnberg's academy, coaching the B and A juniors. In 2015, Matarazzo started the German coaching training at the Hennes-Weisweiler-Akademie, where he shared a room with Julian Nagelsmann. Later, Matarazzo joined Nagelsmann's coaching staff at Hoffenheim in 2017, becoming youth coach there. In 2018, Matarazzo became Nagelsmann's assistant and interfaced between the first team and academy, and stayed there with Alfred Schreuder as head coach. In December 2019, Sven Mislintat signed Matarazzo as first team coach of VfB Stuttgart. He was sacked in October 2022.

On February 8, 2023, Matarazzo returned to TSG Hoffenheim, this time as manager of the first team. He signed a contract until June 2025, replacing André Breitenreiter. In November 2024, he was sacked.