Paolo Hernán Dellafiore (born 2 February 1985) is an Argentine-born 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 ...

, who plays as a

central defender 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 ...

for

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 ...

club Mantova.

Club career

Internazionale

Born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

to Italian parents, Dellafiore started his professional career with

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is t ...

. Dellafiore had played for Inter since the 1999–2000 season and was promoted to the Primavera team, during the 2002–03 season. He made his debut with the ''nerazzurri'' in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

match against

R.S.C. Anderlecht ; french: Les Mauves et Blancs) , short name = R.S.C.A. , founded = , ground = Constant Vanden Stock Stadium , capacity = 22,500 , owntitle = Chairman , owner = Wouter Vandenhaute , manager = Brian Riemer , ...

, on 7 December 2004. He then spent two seasons on loan to Serie C1's

Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest cit ...

(with

Riccardo Meggiorini Riccardo Meggiorini (born 4 September 1985) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a forward for an amateur side San Giovanni Lupatoto. Club career Early career Meggiorini took his first steps as a footballer at age eight, in a sma ...

) and

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 ...

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and '' comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Ven ...

Palermo

In 2006, he was sold to Palermo for €1.5 million as part of the deal that brought Fabio Grosso to Inter for (€6.5M). Dellafiore managed seven appearances in his first season with the ''rosanero''. He was then loaned to

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

for €100,000 (with option to purchase),US Città di Palermo Report and Accounts on 30 June 2008 where he had the opportunity to play more regularly, before being called back to Sicily in June 2008 (which Palermo paid Torino €400,000 to counter the buy option). Dellafiore signed a five-year contract during the 2008–09 season,US Città di Palermo Report and Accounts on 30 June 2009 but on 14 January 2009 turned back to

Torino F.C. Torino Football Club (), commonly referred to as Torino or simply Toro, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont. They currently play in Serie A. Founded as ''Foot-Ball Club Torino'' in 1906, Torino are among the mos ...

on loan for €400,000. After 6 months with

, Torino president

Urbano Cairo Urbano Cairo (born 21 May 1957) is an Italian businessman and chairman of Torino F.C. Cairo is a native of Milan. His principal business interest is in Cairo Communication, a business which he founded. At as mid-2016, Cairo via U.T. Communica ...

announced that Dellafiore will play for Palermo for 2009–2010 after the team was relegated.

Parma (loan)

On 3 July 2009,

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

signed Dellafiore on loan from Palermo, for €250,000, with an option to sign half of the rights for €1.75 million.US Città di Palermo Report and Accounts on 30 June 2010 After the end of the season, Dellafiore returned to Sicily, but was later loaned out again to Parma on 20 August 2010, for free with an option to sign half of the rights for €400,000. He was sub-loaned to Cesena on 7 January 2011, for €200,000.

Parma & Novara

In August 2011 he was permanently transferred to

Parma F.C. Parma Calcio 1913 (), commonly known as Parma, is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, which competes in the Serie B, the second tier of Italian football. ''Parma Football Club'' was originally founded in Decembe ...

, for free. In the same month he moved to Serie A newcomers

Novara Calcio Novara Football Club, commonly referred to as Novara, is an Italian football club based in Novara, Piedmont. The club was founded in 2021 by the City of Novara to replace old Novara Calcio that lost its professional status. History In Decembe ...

for a peppercorn of €500, in co-ownership deal. In May 2012 Dellafiore returned to Internazionale for its Indonesia friendly tour in a 1-month loan. In June 2012 Dellafiore returned to Parma for €250,000, which also cost Parma an additional €200,000 as other fee.Parma FC SpA ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2013
PDF purchased from Italian CCIAA
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Siena

In late June to 1 July 2012, Dellafiore was involved in 8-men swap with

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 centur ...

, which saw Coppola, Dellafiore, Doumbia and Galuppo went to Siena, with

Brandão Brandão (), in English sometimes ''Brandao'' (without the obligatory tilde), is a Portuguese language surname or given name and a place name. It may refer to: Places * Bueno Brandão, Brazil * Caldas Brandão, Brazil * Milton Brandão, Brazil ...

, Pacini, Rossi and Iacobucci went to Parma. Non of the new players actually played for Parma, only able to bring financial success to both clubs. Dellafiore himself failed to play regularly for Siena in Serie A, only able to play twice before left for his first Serie B club

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

in temporary deal. At the end of season Siena relegated, which Dellafiore followed the club for the new season. Dellafiore made his best season with Siena in

2013–14 Serie B The 2013–14 Serie B (known as the Serie B Eurobet for sponsorship reasons) was the 82nd season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams contested the league: 15 of which were returning from the 2012–13 season, 4 of which were pr ...

, in terms of total appearances of 35 Serie B games. At the end of season the co-ownership between Siena and Parma was renewed again, however Siena was expelled from Serie B due to financial difficulties. Dellafiore became a free agent soon after.

Latina

On 23 July 2014, Dellafiore was signed by Serie B club

Latina Latina or Latinas most often refers to: * Latinas, a demographic group in the United States * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America. *Latin Americans Latina and Latinas may also refer ...

along with former Siena team-mate Ângelo, Farelli and Valiani. He left the club in June 2017 after the club was relegated to Serie D for bankruptcy.

Perugia

On 12 January 2018, he was signed by Serie B club

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

after six months of inactivity.

Paganese

On 5 February 2019, after sitting out another half-year without a club, he signed with

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 Paganese. He left the club by the end of the season. In August 2019, he accepted to return to Palermo on trial, after the club was refounded and forced to restart from

. He was however not offered a contract by the end of the pre-season training camp.

Mantova

Dellafiore ended up joining

club Mantova on 6 December 2019, signing a deal until the end of the season.Mercato Serie D: l’ex Palermo Dellafiore ha firmato col Mantova
stadionews.it, 6 December 2019

International career

Although born in Argentina, Dellafiore chose to represent Italy at international level and was capped for Italian junior teams a few times. He made his Italy U21 debut on 11 October 2005 against Moldova U21, he received his second cap for the Olympic team (de facto U21 team) at

2008 Toulon Tournament The 2008 Toulon Tournament was the 36th edition of the Toulon Tournament, and was held from 20 May to 29 May 2008. Tournament finished with the final between Italy and Chile at Stade Mayol in Toulon as Italy had the title after the final score of ...