Francesco Magnanelli (born 12 November 1984) is an Italian former professional football

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He is currently the all-time record appearance holder for

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; egl, label= Modenese, Sasól ) 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 fo ...

Career

Throughout his club career, Magnanelli has played for several Italian sides: he began his career with

Gubbio Gubbio () is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia ( Umbria). It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennines. History The city's origins are very ancie ...

in 2000, and later played for

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, which competes in the second ...

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

, and

Sangiovannese Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Sangiovannese 1927 (formerly ''Associazione Calcio Sangiovannese 1927'') is an Italian association football club based in San Giovanni Valdarno, Tuscany. They currently play in Serie D. History Sangiov ...

, before joining

in 2005, where he helped the team from

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 ...

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

promotion; he won the

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest 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. Before the 1978 ...

and

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named 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 been ...

titles with the club in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

respectively, and was later named the team's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. In June 2015 he signed a new two-year contract with Sassuolo. On 29 October 2019, Magnanelli have been given one-match ban for blasphemy during Serie A matches. There is a strict ban on taking God's name in vain in Italy. On 19 May 2022, Magnanelli announced his retirement from playing at the end of the season.

Style of play

Magnanelli has been described as a talented, purposeful, humble and hard-working

. He is usually deployed in the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...

, and is known in particular for his leadership and passing range, as well as his tactical awareness, and reading of the game, in addition to his tenacity, and ability to win back possession or intercept passes as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career statistics

Honours

Sassuolo *

: 2007–08 *Supercoppa di Lega di Serie C1: 2008 *

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

References

External links

* * 1984 births Living people People from Umbertide Association football midfielders Italian footballers Serie A players Serie B players A.S. Gubbio 1910 players A.S.D. Sangiovannese 1927 players U.S. Sassuolo Calcio players Sportspeople from the Province of Perugia Footballers from Umbria {{Italy-footy-midfielder-1980s-stub