Simone Bracalello (born October 21, 1985), also known in Italy as Bracca, is an Italian former footballer who played as a forward.

Career

Italy

Born in Genoa, Bracalello was a member of the youth academy at famed Italian club

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s ...

before making his professional debut in 2002 aged 17 playing with

Savona Savona (; lij, Sann-a ) is a seaport and ''comune'' in the west part of the northern Italy, Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea. Savona used to be one of the chie ...

Serie C2 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

. He went on to play extensively in the Italian lower leagues, including stints with teams such as Vado and

Prato Prato ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city lies in the north east of Tuscany, at the foot of Monte Retaia, elevation , the last peak in the Calvana chain. With more than 200,000 i ...

in Serie D and

Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

, before leaving Prato at the end of 2008.

United States

Bracalello trained with

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

side Pescara, and with Australian side Newcastle Jets in 2008, and attended a combine with the Minnesota Thunder in 2009, before being signed by the NSC Minnesota Stars of the USSF Division 2 Professional League in the United States in early 2010. During his first season with the Stars, Bracalello was used primarily as a substitute, often having an immediate impact on the match. On June 9, 2010 during a home game against the Montreal Impact, he assisted on

Melvin Tarley Duncan "Melvin" Tarley (born October 31, 1982) is a Liberian professional Association football, footballer. Career Professional Tarley first came to prominence in 2005, during Minnesota Thunder's run to the semi-finals of the 2005 Lamar Hunt U. ...

's game-winning goal in the 87th minute. Six days later, Bracalello scored his first goal for the Stars in a 4–2 win over the KC Athletics in the

U.S. Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in men's Soccer in the United States, soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing nati ...

. On January 6, 2015 the Carolina Railhawks announced that they had signed Bracalello.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bracalello, Simone 1985 births Living people Italian men's footballers Men's association football forwards UC Sampdoria players Como 1907 players AC Prato players Minnesota United FC (2010–2016) players North Carolina FC players USSF Division 2 Professional League players North American Soccer League (2011–2017) players Italian expatriate men's footballers Footballers from Genoa Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States FS Sestrese Calcio 1919 players FC Vado players