Losing 5-4 is better than drawing 0-0: The indestructible Bohemian Zdenek Zeman returns to his spiritual home

Why would you care about an Italian third-tier club appointing a 74-year-old man as head coach? To be honest, few would care. There are sixty clubs spread over three divisions competing at this level in Italy. Getting promoted to the national second-tier, Serie B, is a quest not many people are willing to embark on. But then again, not many people could compare to Zdenek Zeman.

Former Serie A club Calcio Foggia 1920 have had a rough couple of decades. A series of relegations and financial collapses made them a fourth-tier club in the year when the Covid-19 pandemic took over the world. But now, they managed to claw their way up to Serie C under the new owners. And they've just appointed their old-new coach Zeman.

Born in 1947 in Prague, the 21-year-old volleyball and ice hockey enthusiast Zeman travelled to southern Italy to visit his uncle Cestmir Vycpalek, a famous footballer. But, due to a severe political crisis in his home country, Zdenek decided to remain in Italy and, even more importantly, take up coaching.

After a few years of training youth teams in Sicily, in 1986, Zeman was given a chance to manage a third-division team Foggia. Incidentally, it's the same club he would take over in 1989. And in 2010. And also in 2021. Yes, that's right – Zdenek Zeman has become the Foggia boss for the fourth time in his long career.

It was Zeman's second spell in the Calcio Foggia dugout that made him one of the most revered and adored coaches in the country. Even though he had only young and unknown players on his roster, his revolutionary and exciting style of football made Foggia the most exciting team in the land. Attack, attack, attack – that was all there was to it. Playing in a 4-3-3 formation where every player was tasked to attack, Foggia romped to a promotion to the country's top division. The next season, against all odds, they finished ninth in the table.

It's not that Zeman doesn't care if he wins or loses. It's just that he hates to wait and see what the other team will do. So he wants his players always to be proactive and bomb forward no matter what. This approach has led to scorelines like 5-4 and 4-3 often. Some they would win, some they would lose. But it was always exciting – and it earned chain-smoking Czech his nickname Il Boemo – The Bohemian.

Besides attacking at all costs, another method was always a part of Zeman's philosophy – hard training. Seriously hard training. It was running up flights of stairs with weights on players' shoulders, running, running and some more running. Running until the players are left vomiting with exhaustion. And then some more running. Astonishingly fit players are essential to Zeman's all-action tactics, but it's the sort of training, not every player can get along with. In 2008, Il Boemo lasted just a few months in charge of Serbian giants Crvena zvezda. Unaccustomed to such intense training sessions, the unhappy players staged a mutiny and got their coach the sack.

You cannot help but admire a man who's stuck to his principles for such a long time – no matter what or who made him suffer because of them. He's the kind of man who learned a long time ago that sometimes you must suffer to be able to savour the taste of success. Zeman is clear about his views on the sport.

"A 0-0 is boring. It's better to lose 5-4, at least it gives you some excitement. In Italy, managers are afraid that losing a game might mean losing their job. That's why most teams let the opponents play rather than play themselves."

The Bohemian is one of few men who were in charge of both Roman clubs – Roma and Lazio. He has been the boss of many clubs, but he never seemed to be there for a long time. He's come, and he'd go shortly, leaving another set of fans with silly scorelines and footballing adventures to reminisce.