Fabrizio Miccoli

Fabrizio Miccoli (born on June 27 1979) is an Italian football striker who currently is playing for Serie A team Palermo. Despite being born in Nardò, Lecce, he has always lived in San Donato di Lecce, also in Lecce.

Club career

Miccoli started his professional career for Serie C1 team Casarano Calcio.

Juventus

Successively, after a spell at Serie B side Ternana, Miccoli, owned by Juventus, was loaned to Serie A side Perugia for the 2002–03 season. Miccoli showed great qualities during the season, scoring great goals and showing excellent technical ability. He was dubbed the Romario of the Salento and bomber tascabile (pocket bomber), due to his small stature, pace and his technical ability. His efforts helped Perugia reach an UEFA Intertoto Cup spot. For his efforts, he received an Azzurri call-up during the season and Juventus recalled him back for the following season.

Fabrizio Miccoli played six UEFA Champions League games for Juventus, and scored one goal. He also scored seven goals in Serie A for Juventus. However, he did not get much of chance and the next season, half of Miccoli's registration rights was sold to newly promoted ACF Fiorentina for €7million. Once in Florence, Miccoli showed his good qualities once again, helping Fiorentina to salvation on the last day of the season, scoring a goal to send Brescia to Serie B. At the end of the season there was a blind auction between Fiorentina and Juventus to decide his ownership, and Juventus won it by a lump sum of €6.7million for Miccoli, Maresca and Chiellini. Therefore, Miccoli had to return to Turin, but he was sent on loan to SL Benfica.

Benfica

Miccoli scored two goals for Benfica in six Champions League appearances. He also became a fan favorite when he scored a magnificent scissors kick goal against Liverpool during that competition, sending Benfica to the quarterfinals. In July 2006, his loan to Benfica was confirmed. At Benfica, Miccoli attracted attention from other clubs such as AS Roma, Inter Milan, Blackburn Rovers and Deportivo La Coruna but opted to stay one more year in Lisbon with Benfica.

Palermo

On 5 July 2007, Palermo announced on their official website to have signed Miccoli with a 3-year agreement, costing Palermo €4.7 million. He returned to Italian football in the 2007-08 season, and took part in the rosanero's third UEFA Cup campaign. He scored a total eight goals in his first season with the Sicilian club, including the winning goal in the Sicilian derby against Catania, despite a number of injuries which prevented him from playing continuously in the season. In 2008–09, Miccoli, now Palermo vice-captain (behind Fabio Liverani) following the transfers of Andrea Barzagli and Cristian Zaccardo to VfL Wolfsburg, enjoyed a remarkable seasonal start, especially after the appointment of Davide Ballardini as new head coach for the team, creating a prolific striking partnership with Uruguayan Edinson Cavani, scoring 14 goals each.

International career

Fabrizio Miccoli made his Azzurri debut against Portugal in February 2003, creating the only goal for Bernardo Corradi. On 30 March 2004, Miccoli scored directly from a corner kick in another friendly match versus Portugal. He was subsequently featured in UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying matches and received another call-up in a friendly against Finland in November 2004, which ended in a 1-0 win.

Personal life

Miccoli is currently married to Flaviana, a girl he met first when he was 17 and she was 14. Together they have a daughter, Suami, named after the Hindi word for love, and born on March 2003. His second child, a son named Diego, was born on June 2008.^[2]

References

External links

• Career profile at Gazzetta dello Sport.it (Italian)
• Profile at FIGC

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