Alessio Dionisi (born 1 April 1980) is an Italian professional football coach and former player.

Playing career

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

with

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

abilities, Dionisi spent most of his career at

Serie C2 Serie C2 was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Serie C. The league menaging t ...

and

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

levels, with his highlight being at

Tritium Tritium () or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of ~12.33 years. The tritium nucleus (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of the ...

, a club he captained and with whom he won promotion to

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into ...

and also played in the Italian third tier for a season.

Coaching career

Early years

Dionisi retired from active playing football in 2014, immediately being named head coach of

club Olginatese, which was his final club as a player. He then managed again at the Serie D level with

Borgosesia Borgosesia is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about north of Vercelli. The largest town in Valsesia Valsesia (; Walser German: ''Tseschrutol'') i ...

from 2015 to 2017, and

Fiorenzuola Fiorenzuola d'Arda (; , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy in the province of Piacenza, part of the Emilia-Romagna region. Its name derives from ''Florentia'' ("prosperous" in Latin). The "d'Arda" portion refers to the River Arda which flows ...

in the 2017–18 season. He was then named head coach of Serie D club Imolese in 2018, guiding the club to second place in the league. After the club was admitted to

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

to fill a vacancy, he was confirmed at Imolese and successfully guided the small club from

Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...

to a historic third place in the league (the best result in the club's history) and a place in the promotion playoffs, where his club was defeated by

Piacenza Piacenza (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Piacenza, eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with more ...

in the semi-finals.

Venezia

His impressive results with Imolese won him the attention of

Venezia Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, who appointed him head coach on 3 July 2019. With Venezia readmitted to

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

in place of

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, he guided the Venetians to keep their place in the Italian second division.

Empoli

On 19 August 2020, he was announced as the new head coach of Serie B club

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...

. On his first season in charge, he led Empoli to become

2020–21 Serie B The 2020–21 Serie B (known as the Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons) was the 89th season of the Serie B since its establishment in 1929. It started on 25 September 2020 and ended on 10 May 2021. On 5 November 2020, Serie B announced it would ...

champions and ensure themselves promotion to

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

Sassuolo

His impressive results at Empoli led to Serie A club

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town is best known for being the centre of the Ita ...

offering him the vacant role of head coach after

Roberto De Zerbi Roberto De Zerbi (; born 6 June 1979) is an Italian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Ligue 1 club Marseille. Playing career De Zerbi started his professional career at AC Milan. He spent four se ...

's departure; after rescinding his contract with Empoli on 15 June 2021, Dionisi signed a two-year deal with Sassuolo the following day, effective from 1 July 2021. After guiding Sassuolo to two consecutive mid-table placements in the Serie A, Dionisi was sacked on 25 February 2024 following a string of negative results that left the ''Neroverdi'' struggling in the bottom positions of the league.

Palermo

On 7 June 2024, Dionisi was unveiled as the new head coach of

promotion hopefuls

. In his season in charge of Palermo, he failed to fulfil expectations, being consistently criticized by the Palermo supporters due to his inability in improving the results of the club despite having the third-highest squad of the league in terms of cumulative wages and high-level signings such as

Joel Pohjanpalo Joel Julius Ilmari Pohjanpalo (born 13 September 1994) is a Finnish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for club Palermo F.C., Palermo and the Finland national football team, Finl ...

. He eventually led the club to eighth place in the league and was eliminated by

Juve Stabia Società Sportiva Juve Stabia is an Italian professional football club based in Castellammare di Stabia, Campania. Juve Stabia plays in Serie B, the second tier of Italian football system, following their promotion ahead of the 2024–25 seas ...

in the playoffs. On 15 June 2025, Palermo announced that they had relieved Dionisi of his head coaching duties.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Head coach

Empoli *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Individual

Serie A Coach of the Month The Serie A Coach of the Month, officially known as the Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Philadelphia Coach of the Month for sponsorship reasons, is an association football award that recognises the best Serie A head coach each month of the season. T ...

: September 2023

References

1980 births Living people Footballers from the Province of Siena Italian men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Siena FC SSD players ASD AVC Vogherese 1919 players SSD Varese Calcio players Tritium Calcio 1908 players ASD Calcio Ivrea players AC Sambonifacese players SS Verbania Calcio players USD Olginatese players Serie D players Serie C players Italian football managers USD Olginatese managers Borgosesia Calcio managers US Fiorenzuola 1922 SS managers Imolese Calcio 1919 managers Venezia FC managers Empoli FC managers US Sassuolo Calcio managers Palermo FC managers Serie D managers Serie C managers Serie B managers Serie A managers 21st-century Italian sportsmen 20th-century Italian sportsmen {{Italy-footy-defender-1970s-stub