Gianni Munari (born 24 June 1983) is an Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

official and a former player who played 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 ...

. He works as a scout for

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

Career

From Sassuolo to Palermo

Munari started his career with hometown 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 ...

, after being promoted to the senior squad from the youth team. He scored 2 goals in 49 appearances during his two-year spell with the club. In 2003, he joined

Giulianova Giulianova ( Giuliese: ' ) is a coastal town and ''comune'' in the province of Teramo, Abruzzo region, Italy. The ''comune'' also has city ( it, città) status, thus also known as Città di Giulianova. Geography The town lies in the north of the A ...

(via

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 co-ownership deal), where he would spend just one season, scoring three goals in 25 total appearances. He then joined

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 ...

side

Triestina Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918, commonly referred to as Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Originally founded in 1918, the club has been re-established several times in its history. As of the ...

in 2004 in temporary deal with option to co-own the player. He had an impressive season, making 35 appearances and scoring 5 goals in his only season with the

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

-based club. In June 2005 Triestina excised the option for €175,000. He was snapped up by another

club on 30 August 2005 in the form of

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

, (which Verona bought Munari from Triestina for €350,000A.C. Chievo-Verona Srl ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2006
Italian CCIAA
/ref>) where he managed to make 38 appearances and score 4 goals in one season. In June 2006 Verona acquired Munari outright from the cross-town rival for an undisclosed fee. Following such an impressive spell in Verona, he was purchased by

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 ...

side

U.S. Città di Palermo Palermo Football Club, more simply known as Palermo F.C. or Palermo (; scn, Paliemmu, link=no, ), is an Italian football club based in the Sicilian city of Palermo, conventionally founded for the first time on 1 November 1900. Among the club� ...

together with teammate

Mattia Cassani Mattia Cassani (; born 26 August 1983) is an Italian footballer who last played as a defender for Bari. Club career Juventus Cassani started his career at Juventus during the 2002–03 Serie A season, and then left for Sampdoria on loan in J ...

. Half of the Munari's registration rights was valued €1 million while full "card" of Cassani was valued €2.5 million.US Città di Palermo Report and Accounts on 30 June 2007 However, Munari never managed to break into the first team at the Sicilian club and did not play at all during the first half of the

2006–07 Serie A The 2006–07 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 105th season of top-tier Italian football, the 75th in a round-robin tournament. It was scheduled to begin on 26 and 27 August, but was postponed to 2 September 200 ...

season, being subsequently loaned out to Serie B side

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

in January 2007. In June 2007 Palermo acquired another half of Munari for €800,000. However, in July 2007, Lecce acquired 50% of the player's rights from Palermo for €1 million; Munari then remained at Lecce for four more seasons, making a total of 143 appearances for the club, scoring 16 goals and becoming one of the first team mainstays.

From Fiorentina to Sampdoria

In June 2011, Munari's co-ownership was ultimately solved in favour of Palermo for €391,000, and the player returned to Palermo, but was immediately clarified he was not in the ''rosanero'' first team plans after he was not called up to join the Sicilians' pre-season training camp. On 21 July 2011, he moved permanently to

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 ...

for €800,000, signing a three-year contract for the Tuscans. On 31 January 2012, the final day of 2011–12 winter transfer window, he moved to

side

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, ...

Loan to Watford

On 4 August 2014, Munari joined English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

on a season-long loan deal from

. He scored his first goal for Watford against

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

on 19 August 2014 in a 2–0 away win for the Hornets.

Cagliari

After his loan at Watford expired, and after leaving Parma, Munari penned a one-year deal with

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

on 29 July 2015. His contract was extended in summer 2016.

Return to Parma

In January 2017, Munari was re-signed by

in a -year contract. On 14 November 2019, he announced his retirement from playing and that he joined the club's scouting department.

Loan to Verona

On 31 January 2019, Munari joined

on loan until 30 June 2019.

References

External links

Munari's profile (from US Palermo official website)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Munari, Gianni Living people 1983 births People from Sassuolo Sportspeople from the Province of Modena Italian footballers Footballers from Emilia-Romagna Association football midfielders Serie A players Serie B players English Football League players U.S. Sassuolo Calcio players Giulianova Calcio players Palermo F.C. players U.S. Lecce players U.S. Triestina Calcio 1918 players ACF Fiorentina players U.C. Sampdoria players Parma Calcio 1913 players Hellas Verona F.C. players Watford F.C. players Cagliari Calcio players Italian expatriate footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England