On July 2, 2022, Napoli Femminile President Alessandro Maiello, alongside honourary president Rafaele Carlino, announced the signing of new coach Dimitri Lipoff.
The French coach is the first international coach of Napoli Femminile. Lipoff began his career with Lyon’s youth teams, where he worked as a physical trainer under Farid Benstiti.
After two seasons at Lyon, Lipoff followed Bensiti to WFC Rossiyanka in Russia where he became assistant coach and athletic trainer. During this time there, Rossiyanka won the 2012 Russian Championship and reached the quarter-finals of the 2012/13 Women’s UEFA Champions League. At the same time, Lipoff became the assistant coach of the Russian national team, once again working under Bensiti.
After Bensiti resigned from the Russian national team, the tandem moved to PSG, where they enjoyed many successes between 2012 and 2016, including:
- 2012/13 Coupe de France finalists;
- 2013 Ligue 1 runner-up;
- 2014 Ligue 1 runner-up;
- 2014/15 UEFA Women’s Champions League finalists;
- 2015 Ligue 1 runner-up;
2015/16 UEFA Women’s - Champions League semi-finalist; and
- 2016 Ligue 1 runner-up.
In 2016, the dynamic duo took their talents to China, where they led FC Dalian Quanjian for two seasons. Their successes continued, winning the Chinese championship in 2017 and 2018.
Lipoff and his mentor finally went their separate ways in 2019. Lipoff joined another French manager, Jocelyn Précheur, at Jiangsu Ladies Football Club. Jiangsu won the quadruple that season, winning the Chinese Super Cup, the Chinese Cup, the League Cup and the Chinese Championship title.
Finally, after the 2019 campaign Lipoff joined Wuhan Jianghan University, where he continued to collect silverware. In 2020, he led the team to their first ever Women’s Chinese Super League title. Lipoff repeated that feat the following season.
Lipoff now joins Napoli, hoping to get the Partenopee back up to the top flight of Italian football. Lipoff replaces Giulia Domenichetti and Roberto Castorina, who replaced Alessandro Pistolesi at the midway point of the 2021/22 campaign, but were unable to achieve salvation.
