Corrado Grabbi (born 29 July 1975) is an Italian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He was nicknamed "Ciccio" throughout his career. He is currently under contract with

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

as a Under-15 youth

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

Playing career

Early career

Born in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Grabbi began his career with the

youth team. He is also the grandson of former Juventus player Giuseppe Grabbi. He was later promoted to the first team and scored on his debut against

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, in one of his total two appearances in the 1994–95 season. Unable to break into the team, because of his young age and the contemporary explosion of

Alessandro Del Piero Alessandro Del Piero (; born 9 November 1974) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a second striker, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. Since 2015, he has worked as a pundit for ...

, Grabbi was loaned to Lucchese (76 games, 8 goals) and then

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona. History The name came from t ...

(18 games, 2 goals) before switching to

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

. There he found some real form, scoring 30 times in 58 appearances. This performance saw him signed by

Ternana Ternana Calcio, commonly referred to as Ternana, is an Italian football club based in Terni, Umbria and currently compete in the Serie C. The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana has twice played in Serie A ...

, where he played for one season before been loaned to

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

where he scored 13 goals. When he returned to Ternana he became a regular scorer again, with 20 goals in 34 games and became an idol for the local supporters, who still remember him as the best player to ever have played for Ternana.

Blackburn Rovers

Grabbi's prolific season with Ternana saw him attract the attention of various Serie A clubs, including Udinese and AC Milan. But apparently

Luciano Moggi Luciano Moggi (; born 10 July 1937) is a former Italian association football administrator who was a club executive for Roma, Lazio, Torino, Napoli, and Juventus. During his career, he led them to win six Serie A (five with Juventus and one wit ...

of Juventus, who had previously pressured Grabbi to change his agent and join GEA World with no success, made it impossible for Ciccio to play in Italy, so in 2001 he was signed by

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

for a record fee of £6.75 million in July

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, but due to injuries and personal reasons, he failed to repeat this progress, scoring just once in fourteen league games, his goal coming in a 1–0 win over Everton. He scored once more before going on loan to Messina, in the FA Cup against Barnsley. Leaving the club on loan meant he missed out on their victory in the 2002 League Cup Final. During a loan spell back in Italy with

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

, he scored two goals in the final game of the season and saved Messina from relegation. Upon his return to England, he failed to reignite his form, and after a further 16 games and three goals (against Liverpool in the league, CSKA Sofia in the UEFA Cup and Walsall in the League Cup) with Blackburn, who had in the meantime signed ex-Manchester United strikers

Dwight Yorke Dwight Eversley Yorke Chaconia Medal, CM (born 3 November 1971) is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian professional Association football, football coach and former player who is the head coach of Trinidad and Tobago national football team, Trinidad an ...

and

Andy Cole Andrew Alexander Cole (born 15 October 1971) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. His professional career lasted from 1988 to 2008, and is mostly remembered for his time with Manchester United, who paid a Brit ...

, he was allowed to return to Italy permanently with

Ancona Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...

in 2004.

Later career

After spending one year without a team, trying to recover from the injury caused by a rare form of foot disease (Leveraus Morb) which had afflicted him for the past three seasons, he joined

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

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 ...

1/A in September 2005. With his new team, he gained promotion to Serie B on playoffs scoring 9 goals in 25 games. Club president

Enrico Preziosi Enrico Preziosi is an Italian entrepreneur. He runs a number of businesses and is most famous for having been the chairman () of football club Genoa C.F.C., Genoa. Toys Preziosi is the chairman () of the board of directors of Giochi Preziosi (co ...

decided then that Genoa did not need Grabbi anymore, so during the 2007 winter transfer window, Grabbi signed for

Arezzo Arezzo ( , ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the Province of Arezzo, province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of Above mean sea level, above sea level. As of 2 ...

, still in

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 ...

, after having never made a single appearance in the first half of the season for Genoa. After relegation with Arezzo, scoring no goals, Grabbi signed a contract with

AC Bellinzona AC Bellinzona is a Swiss football club based in Bellinzona. It was founded in 1904, and won the Swiss Super League in 1948. After being folded in 2013 declaring bankruptcy, the team played the Ticino Group of 2.Liga, the sixth tier of the Sw ...

, a team from the

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the wi ...

(second division). Grabbi scored the winning goal (his first after more than one year) in the Swiss Cup game Bellinzona-Gossau: 2–1.

Coaching career

After retirement, Grabbi took on a coaching career, joining his former playing team

as a youth coach in 2009. Among all the players he trained as a youth coach from his early years in the ''Pulcini'' category, Grabbi also worked with Italian international

Moise Kean Bioty Moise Kean ( ; born 28 February 2000) is an Italian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Serie A club ACF Fiorentina, Fiorentina and the Italy national football team, Ital ...

Honours

Club

Juventus *

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 ...

: 1994–95 *

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

: 1994–95 Blackburn Rovers * League Cup: 2001–02

References

Websites

*http://www.acbellinzona.ch *http://corradograbbi.blogspot.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Grabbi, Corrado 1975 births Living people Footballers from Turin Men's association football forwards Italian men's footballers Juventus FC players Lucchese 1905 players AC ChievoVerona players Modena FC 2018 players Ternana Calcio players Ravenna FC players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players ACR Messina players AC Ancona players Genoa CFC players SS Arezzo players AC Bellinzona players Premier League players Serie A players Serie B players Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Italian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Italian expatriate sportspeople in England Italian expatriate men's footballers Italian football managers