Francesco Magnanelli (born 12 November 1984) is an Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player. Since August 2024, he is the head coach of

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 ...

's under-20 side. A

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

in his playing days, he is the all-time record appearance holder for

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 ...

Playing 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 Apennine Mountains, Apennines. History Prehistory The ol ...

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. History The name came from t ...

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

, and Sangiovannese, before joining

in 2005, where he helped the team from

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 ...

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 ...

promotion; he won the

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

and

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 ...

titles with the club in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

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 or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. In June 2015 he signed a new two-year contract with Sassuolo. On 29 October 2019, Magnanelli was given a one-match ban for blasphemy during Serie A matches. Italy has a strict ban on taking God's name in vain. 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 eccentricity ...

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 In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Coaching career

After retirement, Magnanelli stayed at Sassuolo as part of Alessio Dionisi's first team coaching staff. He left Sassuolo in the summer of 2023 to rejoin

Massimiliano Allegri Massimiliano "Max" Allegri (; born 11 August 1967) is an Italian professional Association football, football manager and former professional player. He is currently manager of Serie A club AC Milan. During his playing career, Allegri played in ...

, a former manager of his, as his technical collaborator at

. Since then, he has been hailed as a key appointment for the ''Bianconeri'' due to his fresh tactical ideas that were deemed as reminiscent of the playing style of

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 ...

, another former coach of his at Sassuolo, and for having pushed towards different and more modern playing strategies involving key players such as

Federico Chiesa Federico Chiesa (; born 25 October 1997) is an Italian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), winger for club Liverpool F.C., Liverpool and the Italy national football team, Italy national t ...

and

Dušan Vlahović Dušan Vlahović ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Влаховић; born 28 January 2000) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Juventus and the Serbia national team. Graduating from Partizan's youth system, Vlahović ma ...

Career statistics

Honours

Sassuolo *

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

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

References

External links

* * 1984 births Living people People from Umbertide Men's association football midfielders Italian men's footballers Serie A players Serie B players AS Gubbio 1910 players ASD Sangiovannese 1927 players US Sassuolo Calcio players Footballers from the Province of Perugia Juventus FC non-playing staff 21st-century Italian sportsmen {{Italy-footy-midfielder-1980s-stub