Cesare Prandelli has been voted Italy's top coach for a second year in succession for steering Fiorentina to a UEFA Cup berth despite a whopping Calciopoli penalty last season.
''It's great to get this 'Golden Bench' prize, especially because it is awarded by my peers,'' said the 50-year-old former Parma coach.
''We had a great season last year and it was a pity Calciopoli stopped us from challenging for the title''.
Far from mixing it with the big boys, Fiorentina was docked 15 points at the start of the season for its part in the match-fixing scandal.
After a stuttering start to the campaign, many pundits saw it as a prime candidate for relegation.
But Prandelli's outfit put in a late-season surge to snag the last UEFA Cup place.
The previous year Prandelli won the prestigious award for leading the Florentine club to a place in the Champions League.
Prandelli, a former top-class midfielder who won three Serie A titles with Juventus, dedicated his new award to a former club-mate at Atalanta, Salvatore Garritano, who is fighting leucemia.
Before joining Atalanta, Garritano was a stand-in striker for Torino's famous 'goal twins' Francesco Graziani and Paolino Pulici.
He played five times and scored once, against AC Milan, in Torino's 1975 scudetto-winning season.
