Daniele Mannini (born 25 October 1983) is an Italian

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 ...

who plays as a winger. Appearing for clubs such as

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

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 ...

and

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, ...

over the course of a near two decade long professional career, he made over 150 appearances in

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 ...

, also playing for several seasons in

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Following his professional retirement in 2020 he moved to England, where he came out of retirement in July 2022 to play for

Northern Counties East Football League The Northern Counties East Football League is a semi-professional English association football, football league. It has two divisions – Premier Division and Division One – which stand at the ninth and tenth levels of the English football lea ...

Division One club Beverley Town.

Career

Early career

Son of former

ACF Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

goalkeeper Alessandro Mannini, Daniele started his professional career at hometown club

Viareggio Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as ...

, playing with them in the Italian

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 ...

tiers.

Pisa

In summer 2003, he joined

of Serie C1.

Brescia

In 2004–05 season he joined Serie A club

. On 12 September 2004, he made his Serie A debut against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

. He stayed with Brescia after they were relegated to Serie B in summer 2005, and played with them until 31 January 2008.

Napoli

He left for Serie A club

on 31 January 2008, joining fellow Brescia players Santacroce and Hamsik, for a total fee of €18 million within a season. Mannini himself was tagged for €7 million. In January 2009 he was handed a one-year suspension by the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its co ...

(CAS) along with former teammate

Davide Possanzini Davide Possanzini (born 9 February 1976 in Loreto) is an Italian football coach and former forward or attacking midfielder. He is currently in charge as the head coach of club Mantova. Playing career Possanzini started his career with amateur t ...

from WADA for being late for a drugs test following a

match between Brescia and

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona, which competes in the second ...

in December 2007. Later the ban was frozen by CAS due to appeal process., The ban was cancelled on 27 July 2009 after being proved there was no real intention to avoid the controls from Possanzini and Mannini.

Sampdoria

In July 2009, Mannini joined Sampdoria in co-ownership bid, for €3.5 million (€7 million divided half). On the same day

Hugo Campagnaro Hugo Armando Campagnaro (; born 27 June 1980) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a centre back. A full international for Argentina since 2012, Campagnaro has earned 17 caps for his country, and two years later was selec ...

joined Napoli for €7 million. Mannini made an excellent start in his first season at Sampdoria, scoring 5 goals in

and 3 assists in just 8 games. At the end of

2010–11 Serie A The 2010–11 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 109th season of top-tier Italian football, the 79th in a round-robin tournament, and the 1st since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B ...

, Doria was relegated. The club gave up the co-ownership and allowed players to return to their mother clubs for a peppercorn fee of €500 each, such as keeper

Gianluca Curci Gianluca Curci (; born 12 July 1985) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper, most recently for Hammarby IF in the Swedish Allsvenskan. Curci has previously played for Roma, Siena, Sampdoria, Bologna, 1. FSV Mainz 05 ...

and winger Stefano Guberti. However the co-ownership of Mannini was not resolved before the deadline on 24 June. Thus, both clubs had to submit a bid in a sealed envelope to

Lega Serie A The Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A (Italian for ''National Professionals League Serie A''), commonly known as LNPA or Lega Serie A (Serie A League), is the governing body that runs the major professional Association football, football com ...

in order to decide the highest bidder, which was only €500. on the other hand, Sampdoria abstain entirely from making an offer.

Siena

On 6 August 2011, Mannini moved to newly promoted Serie A club

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

in another co-ownership deal for €450,000 (plus €200,000 other fee) in a 4-year contract. In June 2013 Siena acquired Mannini outright for free after the club was relegated. Both clubs failed to form any deal before the deadline, but Napoli did not submit a bid.

Pisa (loan)

On 31 January 2014 he was signed by the third-level club Pisa in a temporary deal. He was released after Siena failed to register for

2014–15 Serie B The 2014–15 Serie B was the 83rd season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams contested the league: 14 of which returning from the 2013–14 season, 5 of which promoted from Prima Divisione, and three relegated from Serie A. T ...

Lecce

On 1 September 2014 he was signed by

US Lecce Unione Sportiva Lecce, commonly referred to as Lecce (), is an Italian football club based in Lecce, Apulia. The club play in Serie A in the 2022–23 season, the top level of the Italian football pyramid, having been promoted from Serie B. ...

Return to Pisa

Mannini was re-signed by Pisa on 27 August 2015.

Pontedera

On 15 January 2020, his contract with

Pontedera Pontedera (; la, Pons Herae) is an italian comune with a population of 29.270 inhabitants, located in the province of Pisa, Tuscany, Central Italy, central Italy. The town is located 20 km (12 miles) from Pisa and 50 km (31 miles) from Florenc ...

was terminated by mutual consent.

Beverley Town

Having been released by Pontedera, Mannini elected to retire from football, and moved to

East Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to th ...

to work as a sales executive for a food company. During a chance encounter while they were both out walking dogs, Mannini met Mark Smith, the chairman of Beverley Town, a local team preparing for their first ever season in Division One of the

, which saw Smith invite Mannini to pre-season training. On 22 July 2022, Beverley Town announced that Mannini had joined them for the upcoming season.

References

External links

La Gazzetta dello Sport profile (2007–08)

Profile at FIGC

Lega Serie B profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mannini, Daniele 1983 births Living people Sportspeople from Viareggio Footballers from the Province of Lucca Italian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Lucchese 1905 players ASD Viareggio Calcio players Pisa SC players Brescia Calcio players SSC Napoli players UC Sampdoria players ACR Siena 1904 players US Lecce players US Città di Pontedera players Beverley Town F.C. players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Italian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Italian expatriate sportspeople in England