1) Fabio Capello was born on June 18 1946 in San Canzian d’Isonzo, in the province of Gorizia in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. His hometown has a population of 5,808.

2) Capello enjoyed a sixteen-year playing career. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was a hard-working midfielder who had little pace but a quick football brain. He started his career with provincial side SPAL Ferrara and later played for AS Roma, Juventus and AC Milan. He played 32 times for Italy and scored the winning goal in the Azzuri’s first ever away victory over England at Wembley in 1973.

3) Fabio's managerial career isn't restricted to football. In 1987, he worked as a commercial manager for Mediolanum, the company formed by AC Milan chairman Silvio Berlusconi that comprised football, volleyball, rugby and ice hockey clubs. He gained experience in negotiating sponsorship and other business skills.

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4) Capello’s habit of making enemies wherever he goes dates back to his playing career. As an AC Milan player in the late 1970s, he once hid in a hedge to ambush a passing journalist who had dared to criticise his on-pitch displays.

5) Football does not consume every facet of Fabio Capello’s life. In his private life, his circle of friends consists mainly of artists, literary critics and travel writers. His art collection - in which he invested an estimated £10 million in a year-long art collection trip in the late 1990s, is thought to be one of the most impressive in northern Italy.

6) Capello's other passion is travel. While England's footballers have been whooping it up in Aiya Napa, Fabio has traversed the Mexican ruins of Chiapas, been hiking in Tibet and journeyed to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

7) Capello has never been afraid to upset football’s biggest stars in order to get his team to perform. He publicly feuded with Italian stars Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti and Antonio Cassano, prematurely ended David Beckham’s Real Madrid career (before reversing his decision) and attempted to motivate Brazilian striker Ronaldo with the immortal question “Aren’t you ashamed to be so fat?”

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8) Of the many disputes he has had with his players, Capello’s most heated exchange was with Paolo Di Canio after an AC Milan friendly in China in 1996. When Di Canio asked why his manager was so obsessed with the result of a seemingly meaningless friendly, Capello is said to have simply responded “You are an ugly c**t and your face looks like a penis”. The pair then came to blows. Di Canio never played for Milan again.

9) It seems the only person in Capello’s life not to feel his wrath is his wife Laura. The pair met as teenagers on a bus in central Italian town of Ferrara. They have two sons, one of whom, Pier Filippo, works as a lawyer for his father.

10) It’s safe to say that Fabio’s image rights may be worth more than those of his predecessor Steve McClaren. With his RH+ spectacles, Armani suits and fine leather shoes, Capello cuts a typically stylish Italian figure and will no doubt look smoother than a prematurely-balding Yorkshireman with overly whitened teeth.