Alessio Dionisi (born 1 April 1980) is an Italian professional football coach and former player who is the head coach of club

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; egl, label=Modenese dialect, Modenese, Sasól ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town ...

Playing career

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

with

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offence ...

abilities, Dionisi spent most of his career at

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 2 ...

and

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 ...

level, with his personal highlight being at

Tritium Tritium ( or , ) or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life about 12 years. The nucleus of tritium (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus o ...

, a club he captained and with whom he won promotion to

Lega Pro Prima Divisione 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� ...

and also played in the Italian third tier for a season.

Coaching career

Dionisi retired from active playing footballing in 2014, immediately being named head coach of

club Olginatese, which was his final club as a player. He then managed again at Serie D level with

Borgosesia Borgosesia is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about north of Vercelli. The largest town in the Valsesia, it is crossed by the Sesia River. History Th ...

from 2015 to 2017, and

Fiorenzuola Fiorenzuola d'Arda (; egl, label= Piacentino, Fiurinsöla, or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy in the province of Piacenza, part of the Emilia-Romagna region. Its name derives from ''Florentia'' ("prosperous" in Latin). The "d'Arda" portion r ...

in the 2017–18 season. He was then named head coach of Serie D club Imolese in 2018, guiding the club to second place in the league. After the club was admitted to

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 Pro ...

to fill a vacancy, he was confirmed at Imolese, and successfully guided the small club from

Emilia-Romagna egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title ...

to a historic third place in the league (the best result in the club's history) and a place in the promotion playoffs, where his club was defeated by

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

in the semi-finals. His impressive results with Imolese won him the attentions of

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

, who appointed him as head coach on 3 July 2019. With Venezia readmitted to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, 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 ...

in place of

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , 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 ...

, he guided the Venetians to keep their place in the Italian second division. On 19 August 2020, he was announced as the new head coach of Serie B club

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

. On his first season in charge, he led Empoli to become

2020–21 Serie B The 2020–21 Serie B (known as the Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons) was the 89th season of the Serie B since its establishment in 1929. It started on 25 September 2020 and ended on 10 May 2021. On 5 November 2020, Serie B announced it would ...

champions and ensure themselves promotion to

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 Coppa ...

. His impressive results at Empoli led to Serie A club

offering him the vacant role of head coach after

Roberto De Zerbi Roberto De Zerbi (; born 6 June 1979) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of club Brighton & Hove Albion. Playing career De Zerbi started his professional career at AC Milan. He spent four season ...

's departure; after rescinding his contract with Empoli on 15 June 2021, Dionisi signed a two-year deal with Sassuolo the following day, effective from 1 July 2021.

Career statistics

Managerial

Honours

Head coach

Empoli *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

1980 births Living people Sportspeople from the Province of Siena Footballers from Tuscany Italian footballers Men's association football central defenders A.C.R. Siena 1904 players A.S.D. AVC Vogherese 1919 players S.S.D. Varese Calcio players Tritium Calcio 1908 players A.S.D. Calcio Ivrea players A.C. Sambonifacese players S.S. Verbania Calcio players U.S.D. Olginatese players Serie D players Serie C players Italian football managers U.S.D. Olginatese managers Borgosesia Calcio managers U.S. Fiorenzuola 1922 S.S. managers Imolese Calcio 1919 managers Venezia F.C. managers Empoli F.C. managers U.S. Sassuolo Calcio managers Serie D managers Serie C managers Serie B managers Serie A managers {{Italy-footy-defender-1970s-stub