Claudio Bellucci (born 31 May 1975) is an Italian former association footballer who played as a striker and current manager.

Football career

Bellucci started his career with

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

, making his

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 Cop ...

debut against

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

on 13 March 1994, at the age of 18. He made one more appearance for the

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

-based side, before being loaned to Fiorenzuola of Serie C1. In his first game after his return to Sampdoria, on 20 April 1995, he scored two goals in the 83rd and 86th minute of the

1994–95 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The 1994–95 season of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was won by Real Zaragoza in the final against defending champions Arsenal, the Spanish club winning thanks to a last-minute goal from midfielder Nayim with a shot from 40 yards. Moldova Mol ...

return leg semifinal against Arsenal. Arsenal, who won the first leg 3–2, reached to score two minutes before the end of the match, and eventually won the successive

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. He then left for

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 ...

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie 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 season. It had been ...

Napoli

He stayed at

Venice 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 isla ...

for only one season, before signing for

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. He followed the club's relegation to Serie B in summer 1998, and after two seasons they regained promotion to the top flight. When Napoli were once again relegated, he transferred to

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

Bologna

Bellucci signed a contract extension in September 2004. Bellucci followed Bologna relegated to Serie B in summer 2005, in which he scored 25 and 19 goals, became the second highest goal scorers of the two successive seasons.

Return to Sampdoria

He returned to Sampdoria on 15 June 2007 on a free transfer. He signed a two-year contract with an option for further one year. He scored 12 goals in 32 Serie A games in

2007–08 Serie A The 2007–08 Serie A (known as the Serie A Telecom Italia Mobile, TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 106th season of top-tier Italian association football, football, the 76th in a round-robin tournament. It started on 25 August 2007 and ended ...

but ruptured his right Achilles tendon on 21 May 2008, in the 2–0 win over Palermo. Bellucci returned in action in October, but found few opportunities due to the rise in importance of

Antonio Cassano Antonio Cassano (; born 12 July 1982) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward. A talented and technically gifted player, he was usually deployed as a supporting forward, but could also play as an attacking midfield ...

and the mid-season signing of

Giampaolo Pazzini Giampaolo Pazzini (; born 2 August 1984), nicknamed ''Il Pazzo'' ("The Madman") after his surname, is a former Italian professional footballer who played as a striker. He spent most of his career in Serie A with Atalanta, Fiorentina, Sampdoria ...

. In the 2009–10 season, he made 8 league appearances, three of them coming as a starter.

Livorno

On 19 January 2010 Livorno signed the forward from Sampdoria on loan.

Modena

On 10 September 2010 Bellucci signed a contract from Modena on a free transfer.

Coaching career

After retirement at the end of the 2010/11 season, Bellucci retired and became a youth coach at his former club A.S. Lodigiani.Calciomercato Serie B, ESCLUSIVO/ Claudio Bellucci: "Smetto per fare l’allenatore"
seriebnews.com, 13 August 2011 He worked there until July 2013, where he was named as the new youth coach of the ''Giovanissimi Regionali'' team of

in 2013, and then becoming a co-coach of the ''Primavera'' team (together with Enrico Chiesa) the following year. In 2015, he became a part of

Walter Zenga Walter Zenga (; born 28 April 1960) is an Italian football manager and former player who last managed Serie A club Cagliari. He was a long-time goalkeeper for Inter Milan and the Italian national team. During his playing career, Zenga was pa ...

's staff for the first team of Sampdoria, a job he left with the appointment of Vincenzo Montella as new head coach and his demotion as youth coach. He left Sampdoria in 2017 to become the new head coach of

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 ...

club Arezzo, a position he kept only for the first four weeks of the season. In October 2018 he was named new head coach of

minnows Albissola, at the bottom place of the league table on their first season as a professional club. Belucci was fired on 4 March 2019. On 15 September 2021, Bellucci was appointed

Walter Mazzarri Walter Mazzarri (; born 1 October 1961) is an Italian former footballer and head coach, most recently in charge of Serie A club Cagliari. After a 14-year playing career with Italian clubs including Reggiana and Empoli, Mazzarri coached several ...

's new assistant coach at

club Cagliari. He was dismissed from his role on 3 May 2022, one day after Mazzarri's sacking.

References

External links

Bellucci's profile on Sampdoria's official websiteFIGC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellucci, Claudio 1975 births Living people Italian footballers Italy under-21 international footballers U.C. Sampdoria players U.S. Fiorenzuola 1922 S.S. players Venezia F.C. players S.S.C. Napoli players Bologna F.C. 1909 players U.S. Livorno 1915 players Modena F.C. players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Association football forwards Footballers from Rome Serie C managers Italian football managers