Riccardo Maniero (born 26 November 1987) is an Italian

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 plays 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 ...

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 ...

club Savoia.

Career

Juventus and loans

Maniero began his youth career 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 ...

and was promoted to the Primavera reserve team in 2005. As a player of the under-20 team, Maniero also received some call ups by

Didier Deschamps Didier Claude Deschamps (; born 15 October 1968) is a French professional football manager and former player who has been managing the France national team since 2012. He played as a defensive midfielder for several clubs, in France, Italy, Engl ...

for the senior side in various

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 ...

and Serie B matches, specifically in matches against AlbinoLeffe,

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

, and

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 ...

, appearing as an unused substitute on the bench. This was the season when Juventus were relegated to the second division for the first time in their history following the

Calciopoli ''Calciopoli'' () was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A, and to a lesser extent, Serie B. The scandal centered on the manipulation of referee appointments to favor certain clubs during the 2004- ...

scandal, and Maniero was eventually part of the team that led Juventus back to Serie A that year. In June 2007, Maniero was not part of

Claudio Ranieri Claudio Ranieri (; born 20 October 1951) is an Italian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Serie A club AS Roma, Roma but will leave on 30 June 2025, followin ...

's first team plans and so, he was loaned out to Ascoli, together with fellow Juventus youth player Andrea Luci. With Ascoli, Maniero managed a single goal in 21 league appearances, and following his loan stint with Ascoli, he was again loaned out to another Serie B club

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

, along with fellow Juventus ''loanees''

Davide Lanzafame Davide Lanzafame (; born 9 February 1987) is an Italian football coach and former professional player, who played as a striker or right winger. He is in charge of Eccellenza amateurs Borgaro. Playing career Juventus Lanzafame, born in Turin ...

, Raffaele Bianco, and Rej Volpato. While Lanzafame and Bianco established themselves well with the club, Maniero failed to settle and gain regular action, as the attacker made zero official appearances in six months with the ''biancorossi''. Following his disappointing spell with Bari, Maniero was sub-loaned out to Italian third division side,

Lumezzane Lumezzane (, locally ) is a town and (municipality) in the province of Brescia, in the Italian region of Lombardy. With a population of 22,255 (), it is one of the largest towns in its province. It is situated in the Gobbia Valley, which is a s ...

. During his loan period with Lumezzane, Maniero made his first 13 league appearances, and he also scored 2 goals. In July 2009, another third division club

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 ...

officially announced the engagement of Maniero. Maniero had a successful season with the Lega Pro Prima Divisione side, establishing himself as a starter and scoring 12 goals in 31 league appearances.

Pescara

In August 2010 Maniero joined

Pescara Pescara (; ; ) is the capital city of the province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo Regions of Italy, region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 118,657 (January 1, 2023) residents (and approximately 350,000 including the surround ...

ahead of the

2010–11 Serie B The 2010–11 Serie B (known as the Serie bwin for sponsorship reasons) is the seventy-ninth season since its establishment in 1929, and the first one under the rule of the new Lega Serie B. A total of 22 teams contest the league, 15 of which retu ...

campaign in co-ownership deal, for €450,000.Delfino Pescara 1936 Srl ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2011 (in Italian)
PDF purchased in Italian CCIAA
/ref> Co-currently Juventus signed Luca Del Papa from Pescara also in co-ownership deal for €300,000. On the same day Pescara signed Raffaele Alcibiade in temporary deal from Juve. Maniero, however, failed to score regularly in Serie B. On 31 August 2012 he left for Serie B newcomer

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 ...

after Maniero was excluded from Pescara's Serie A plan. Ternana also got midfielder

Antonino Ragusa Antonino Ragusa (born 27 March 1990) is an Italian footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Reggina. Club career Treviso Born in Messina, Sicily, Ragusa started his professional career at Veneto club Treviso, where he played for ''Alliev ...

and defender

Riccardo Brosco Riccardo Brosco (born 3 February 1991) is an Italian footballer who plays as a defender for club Pescara. Club career Brosco is a product of the Roma youth system. His favoured position is at centre back but he is also able to score goals wit ...

from Pescara on the same day. On 19 June 2013 the co-ownership between Pescara and Juventus were terminated, which saw Maniero now 100% under Pescara's contract for free as well as Del Papa under Juve for €100,000.

Catania

On 14 January 2015 he was signed by

Calcio Catania Catania Football Club, commonly known as Catania, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in the city of Catania, Sicily, that plays in Serie C. Originally founded in 1908 as ''Associazione Sportiva pro Educazione Fisica'', the clu ...

. He wore no.7 shirt for his new team, vacated by

Marcelinho Marcelinho is a diminutive form of the given name Marcelo, and may refer to: Sports Football *Marcelinho Carioca (born 1971), born ''Marcelo Pereira Surcin'', Brazilian attacking midfielder * Marcelinho Paulista (born 1973), born ''Marcelo José d ...

. Catania was expelled (relegated) from

2015–16 Serie B The 2015–16 Serie B (known as the Serie B ConTe.it for sponsorship reasons) was the 84th season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams contested the league: 16 returning from the 2014–15 season, 4 promoted from Lega Pro, and 2 ...

due to a match-fixing scandal.

Bari

On 31 August 2015 Maniero was signed by Serie B club

Novara

On 4 August 2017 Maniero was signed by another Serie B club

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

Return to Pescara

On 18 July 2019, he returned to

Avellino

On 11 September 2020 he signed a 3-year contract with

Avellino Avellino () is a city and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

References

External links

National Team Archive
of FIGC
Lega Serie B profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maniero, Riccardo 1987 births Living people Footballers from Naples Italian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Serie B players Serie C players Juventus FC players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players SSC Bari players SS Arezzo players FC Lumezzane players Delfino Pescara 1936 players Ternana Calcio players Catania FC players Novara FC players Cosenza Calcio players US Avellino 1912 players SS Turris Calcio players Italy men's youth international footballers 21st-century Italian sportsmen