Diego Falcinelli

Born in Marsciano, in the Province of Perugia, Falcinelli started his career at Ponte San Giovanni (a frazione of Perugia) based club Pontevecchio. He was loaned to Internazionale in June 2007.[1] He played one friendly for the first team in February 2008.[2] He also won the Campionato Nazionale Allievi with Inter U17 youth team.[3]

On 1 July 2008, he returned to Perugia, making his Serie D debut.

On 2 July 2009, Falcinelli was signed by Sassuolo for the youth team. He also awarded no.26 shirt of the first team, which he made his Serie B debut on 28 November 2009, replacing Gianluigi Bianco in the 82nd minute and assisting Alessandro Noselli for the equalising goal a minute later as Sassuolo drew 2–2 with Ancona.[4]

On 26 July 2010, Falcinelli left for Lega Pro Prima Divisione club Foligno in a co-ownership deal, for a peppercorn fee of one hundred euro.[5][6] He made his debut on 8 August 2010, in 2010–11 Coppa Italia first round.[7] Since the cup second round, he partnered with Matteo Cavagna and Stefano Giacomelli in a 4–3–3 formation, only missing rounds 6 and 7 of the league.

In June 2011 Sassuolo re-signed Falcinelli on a three-year contract, for a transfer fee of €25,000.[8] In January 2012 he was signed by Juve Stabia in a temporary deal.

Falcinelli spent two seasons on loan to Serie B club Lanciano, scoring nine goals from 2012 to 2014.

During the 2014 summer transfer window, he joined newly promoted Serie B club Perugia. He scored a career high of 14 goals for the hometown club in 2014–15 Serie B, making him secure a place for Sassuolo in 2015–16 Serie A season.

Falcinelli picked no.9 shirt in 2015–16 season. On 14 January 2016, he signed a 4½-year contract.[9]

On 31 August 2016, Falcinelli left for Serie A newcomer Crotone on loan. He scored three goals against Empoli on 29 January 2017. He also scored once on 28 May (round 38), a 3–1 win against Lazio; Crotone secured 3 points to survive from relegation as well as ranked higher than Empoli for the second time of the season (the team ranked higher than Empoli in round 2; from round 2 to 37 Crotone was in the relegation zone)

Falcinelli signed a new five-year contract with Sassuolo on 25 August 2017.[10]

In January 2018, Falcinelli joined Fiorentina on loan until 30 June 2018 as part of swap deal, in which Khouma Babacar moved the other way. Fiorentina also secured an option to sign Falcinelli permanently from Sassuolo.[11][12]

On 4 July 2018, Falcinelli joined Bologna on a four-year contract.[13][14]

On September 2, 2019, he returned to Perugia on a season-long loan.[15]

Falcinelli´s bestman, coach Siniša Mihajlović, was aware that his former club, the team from his homeland where he won the European Cup and Intercontinental Cup ammong other trophies, Red Star Belgrade, was searching for an experienced striker. It was summer 2020 and Red Star had promoted as coach the recently retired player, Dejan Stanković, who, besides being their former player, has spent most of his career none else but preciselly in Italy. Fluent in Italian and comfortable with Italian mentality, Stanković accepted Mihajlović sugestion, and, after all standard procedures and medical exames, Falcinelli and Red Star signed a year-long loan agreement.[16]

Falcinelli could certainly benefit to easily addapt to Serbia from the fact of having Stanković as his coach, and the proximity of Belgrade with Italy. However, what didn´t helped at all was the fact that his debut happened only one week upon his signing preciselly in the most important competition for the club, the Champions League. When Falcinelli joined the Red & White´s on September 9, the club was already just a week from playing the third qualifiying round of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League in a one match tie, away, againt Cypriot champions AC Omonia. Without even a full week to properly train and familiarise with the team, Stanković included Falcinelli in the squad. Starting the game on the bench, Falcinelli saw his team in a 1–1 draw, when Stanković decided to include him in the game by replacing him with Aleksa Vukanović in 89th minute. Shortly after, the game finished, and the extra-time brought no changes in the result board, leading the decition to be made by penalty shout-out. No one missed the first two rounds of penalties, however, Falcinelli was chousen to shoot the third one on behalve of Red Star, and his shot was saved by Omonia´s goalkeeper. Playing at home, Omonia gained confidence, scored the following two penalties, while Red Star´s Miloš Degenek missed as well after Falcinelli, giving a final 4–2 win in penalties to Omonia after a 1–1 draw, and the subsequent elimination of Red Star from the Champions League and the relegation to Europa League.[17] The unfortunate miss of the penalty made some fans become skeptical regarding Falcinelli, however, in the following games he demonstrated his quality and maturity and by the winter-break, the Italian 29-years old striker scored 7 goals in 11 SuperLiga games, and 2 goals in 6 UEFA Europa League games.[18]

Updated 31 May 2019