Bruno Zapelli (born 16 May 2002) is a professional

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 le ...

currently playing as a

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 ...

for Brazilian club

Athletico Paranaense Club Athletico Paranaense (commonly known as Athletico and formerly known as Atlético Paranaense) is a Brazilian football team from the city of Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná, founded on March 26, 1924. The team ...

. Born in Argentina, he is an Italian youth international.

Club career

Born in Carlos Paz, Córdoba, Zapelli was spotted at the age of eleven by Spanish side

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

while trialling in Rosario. After almost three years in Spain, he returned to Argentina and trialled with

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

. However, when the club could not provide a place for him to stay, he returned to Córdoba to join

Belgrano Belgrano may refer to: People * Joaquín Belgrano (1773–1848), an Argentine patriot * José Denis Belgrano (1844–1917), Spanish painter * Joseph Belgrano (1762–1823), Argentine military officer and politician, brother of Manuel * Manuel Belg ...

. In 2022, Zapelli was subject to a $2,000,000 bid from Italian club

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, which was rejected by Belgrano.

International career

Born in Argentina, Zapelli is of Italian descent and holds both citizenships. He was called up to the Italy U21s in March 2023.

Career statistics

Club

References

2002 births Living people Sportspeople from Córdoba, Argentina Italian men's footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Argentine men's footballers Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent Men's association football midfielders Primera Nacional players Club Atlético Belgrano footballers Club Athletico Paranaense players Italian expatriate men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Italian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Italian expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil {{Argentina-footy-midfielder-2000s-stub