Michele Pazienza (; born 5 August 1982) is an Italian football coach, and a former player who played 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 ...

. He is currently in charge of Audace Cerignola.

Career

Foggia

Pazienza was born in

San Severo San Severo (; formerly known as Castellum Sancti Severini, then San Severino and Sansevero; locally ) is a city and comune of c. 51,919 inhabitants in the province of Foggia, Apulia, south-eastern Italy. Rising on the foot of the spur of Garga ...

in the

province of Foggia The Province of Foggia ( it, Provincia di Foggia ; Foggiano: ) is a province in the Apulia (Puglia) region of southern Italy. This province is also known as Daunia, after the Daunians, an Iapygian pre-Roman tribe living in Tavoliere plain, and ...

, and grew up in

Foggia Calcio Calcio Foggia 1920, commonly referred to as Foggia, is an Italian football club based in Foggia, Apulia. It currently plays in Serie C, having last been in the top level Serie A in 1995. The team gained nationwide popularity as Foggia Calcio in ...

's youth team. He made his debut with the first team in

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 ...

in 2000. Pazienza played with Foggia until 2003, scoring 6 goals in 88 appearances, and helping the team reach the promotion play-offs in 2002, and promotion to

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 ...

in 2003.

Udinese

The following season Pazienza then transferred to

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a foo ...

, also making his

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 ...

debut with the club. He made 52 appearances in his two seasons with the club.

Fiorentina

Pazienza left on loan to

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 ...

for the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons for a loan fee of €350,000 annually and was then purchased outright by the club in June 2007 for an additional fee of €3.15 million (a misc. fee that cost ''La Viola'' an additional €160,000 was later shifted to other company);ACF Fiorentina S.p.A. ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 31 December 2007, PDF purchased from

CCIAA The Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Artisanship ( it, Camera di Commercio, Industria, Agricoltura e Artigianato, CCIAA) is a group of Italian organizations that promote business activities. Companies are required to register in the c ...

(in Italian)ACF Fiorentina S.p.A. ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 31 December 2008, PDF purchased from

(in Italian) he made 52 league appearances for ''la Viola'' in total.

Napoli

During the

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 ...

winter transfer window, Pazienza was purchased by

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

in a -year contract for a transfer fee of €4.25 million. In total, he made 106 appearances for the club, scoring 4 goals.

Juventus

On 9 June 2011, Pazienza signed a three-year contract with

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

on a free transfer. After only making eight appearances under

Antonio Conte Antonio Conte (; born 31 July 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Playing as a midfielder, Conte began his career at local club Lecce and later ...

, he moved on loan from Juventus back to Udinese on 31 January 2012, where he played the remainder of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

, making 15 appearances and scoring a goal, for a total of 23 Serie A appearances that season.

Bologna

On 30 August 2012, Pazienza was purchased by

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

for €300,000 on a three-year contract,Bologna F.C. 1909 S.p.A. ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2013, PDF purchased from

(in Italian) worth €1,081,615 in the first season and €1,261,569 in the second and the third season respectively in gross. The transfer also cost Bologna an additional €366,000 as other fee. Pazienza was ranked joint-4th as the highest earner of Bologna player in 2012–13 season. Pazienza made 37 league appearances for Bologna in the first two seasons. However, he did not play any game in his last year of contract in 2014–15 season, which the club was relegated to Serie B.

Vicenza & Reggiana

On 14 July 2015, Pazienza signed for Serie B club

Vicenza Calcio L.R. Vicenza, commonly referred to as Vicenza, is an Italian football club based in Vicenza, Veneto. Founded in 1902 as Associazione del Calcio in Vicenza, they became Lanerossi Vicenza in 1953, then Vicenza Calcio from 1990 to 2018, a year whi ...

on a free transfer; he was awarded the number 4 shirt. On 4 February 2016, he was transferred to

Lega Pro The Serie C () 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 body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

side

Reggiana Reggiana may refer to: * A.C. Reggiana 1919, a football club * ASDCF Reggiana, a women's football club * Pallacanestro Reggiana Pallacanestro Reggiana, also known for sponsorship reasons as UnaHotels Reggio Emilia, is an Italian professional bas ...

in a five-month contract. In summer 2016, along with other free agents, Pazienza obtained the license to be a youth team coach (UEFA B License).

Manfredonia

In August Pazienza started to train with

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

club

Manfredonia Manfredonia is a town and commune of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Foggia, from which it is northeast by rail. Manfredonia is situated on the coast, facing east, to the south of Monte Gargano, and gives its name to the gulf to the east of ...

. He signed a contract on 24 September.

Style of play

Although Pazienza primarily excelled as a ball winner, and at breaking down opposition attacks, he was also capable of aiding his team offensively, due to his stamina, work-rate, dynamism, finesse, and ability to make attacking runs into the area; he was also able to aid his team creatively and was an effective

assist Assist or ASSIST may refer to: Sports Several sports have a statistic known as an "assist", generally relating to action by a player leading to a score by another player on their team: * Assist (basketball), a pass by a player that facilitates a b ...

provider.

Coaching career

Pazienza was promoted to the head coach position at

Serie C The Serie C () 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 body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega ...

club

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the ...

from their Under-19 squad on 19 October 2017 following the firing of Carmine Gautieri. He was dismissed from Pisa on 26 March 2018. On 5 November 2018, he was appointed manager of Siracusa. He was fired by Siracusa on 15 December 2018. On 15 July 2020, Pazienza was named new head coach of

club Audace Cerignola. Despite failing on promotion, he was confirmed also for the

2021–22 Serie D The 2021–22 Serie D is the seventy-third season of the top level Italian non-professional football championship. It represents the fourth tier in the Italian football league system. Teams The composition of the league involves nine division ...

campaign, during which he led Audace Cerignola to be crowned Group H champions, thus ensuring themselves a Serie C place for the first time in over 80 years in the club's history.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Managerial

; Audace Cerignola *

: 2021–22 (Group H)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pazienza, Michele 1982 births Living people People from San Severo Italian footballers Calcio Foggia 1920 players Udinese Calcio players ACF Fiorentina players S.S.C. Napoli players Juventus F.C. players Bologna F.C. 1909 players L.R. Vicenza players A.C. Reggiana 1919 players Manfredonia Calcio players Men's association football midfielders Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Italian football managers Pisa S.C. managers Footballers from Apulia Sportspeople from the Province of Foggia