Michele Fini (born 14 June 1974) 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.

Playing career

Fini was born in

Sorso Sorso () is a ''comune'' (municipality) of c. 14,700 inhabitants in the province of Sassari in the Italy, Italian region Sardinia, located about north of Sassari. Overview Sorso is a tourist resort facing the Gulf of Asinara. Apart tourism, the e ...

Province of Sassari The province of Sassari (; ; ; ; ) was a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia, Italy. Its capital was the city of Sassari. On 1 April 2025, the province was suppressed in favor of the new Metropolitan City of Sassari, which corres ...

. 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 ...

, started his career at

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

n clubs. In summer 1995 he was signed by

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 January 1998 he was signed by

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is an Italian professional football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recently in 2011. The current ...

of Serie B. Fini's debut in

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 ...

and last match for Salernitana was on 26 September 1998 in a match against

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

the score was 2–0. He was transferred to

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

from

Ascoli Calcio 1898 Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC, commonly referred to as Ascoli, is an Italian football club based in Ascoli Piceno, Marche. The club was formed in 1898 and currently plays in Serie C. The team traditionally play in vertical black and white stripes. H ...

in 2007, signed a two-year deal. He scored six goals in sixty six appearances in his time at the club. On 9 July 2009, A.C. Siena signed the midfielder from

Cagliari Calcio Cagliari Calcio, commonly referred to as Cagliari (), is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Cagliari, Sardinia, that plays in Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. The club currently plays home matches at the 16,416-sea ...

on a two-year deal. After his spell at Siena, Fini returned to his home province of

Sassari Sassari ( ; ; ; ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 120,497 inhabitants as of 2025, and a functional urban area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, it contains ...

and spent the remainder of his career playing for

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 ...

side A.C. Porto Torres. He formally retired in July 2014 at the age of 40 to take up the assistant manager position at Bologna F.C.

Managerial career

On 3 July 2014, Bologna manager

Luis Diego López Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

appointed Fini as the club's assistant manager. Fini departed the club the following year after López's removal. In January 2017 he was appointed as a member 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 ...

's technical staff, a position which he left in October of that year to rejoin López as assistant manager, this time at his former club

. Fini followed López, with whom he moved to López homeland, Uruguay, in early June 2018, joining

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (), more commonly referred to as Peñarol, is a Uruguayan professional football club based in Montevideo. The club currently competes in the Uruguayan Primera División, the highest tier in Uruguayan football. The nam ...

. Starting from five points behind arch-rivals

Club Nacional de Football Club Nacional de Football (, ''National Football Club'') is a Uruguayan professional sports club based in La Blanqueada, La Blanqueada, Montevideo. The club was founded on 14 May 1899 as a result of the merger between ''Uruguay Athletic Club'' an ...

, they led the club to a league title by beating that adversary 1–0 in the final. After losing by the same margin to Nacional in the next edition, López announced his exit in December 2019 together with his staff, including Fini. On 5 February 2020, Fini and López returned to Serie A, signing with second-from-bottom

Brescia Calcio Brescia Calcio, commonly referred to as Brescia (), is an Italian football club based in Brescia, Lombardy. The team currently plays in Serie B, the second tier of Italian football, but will play in Serie C in 2025–26 due to financial contro ...

after the dismissal of

Eugenio Corini Eugenio Corini (born 30 July 1970) is an Italian professional football coach and former player. A talented, dynamic, and hard-working playmaker, known for his precise long passing, flair and his ability to orchestrate his team's attacking moves ...

. López and Fini was fired on 20 August 2020. However, they were hired again on 6 October 2020. Two months later, the duo was fired for the second time.

Honours

Salernitana *

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 ...

: 1997–98 Ascoli *Serie B promotion to Serie A: 2004–05 Catania *

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 ...

promotion Serie B playoff: 2001–02 Peñarol * Uruguayan Championship Championship: 2018 Individual *

top assist provider: 2008–09 (13 assists)

References

Sources

*
gazzetta.it
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fini, Michele 1974 births Living people People from Sorso Footballers from the Province of Sassari Italian men's footballers Serie A players Serie B players AC Ancona players US Salernitana 1919 players Cosenza Calcio 1914 players US Avellino 1912 players Catania FC players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players Cagliari Calcio players Men's association football midfielders SEF Torres 1903 players