Leandro Greco (born 19 July 1986) 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 ...

coach 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 ...

Career

A midfielder, Greco was a regular in the Roma youth squad. He made his Serie A debut for AS Roma in 2004–05. In the 2005–06 season, Greco made only a handful of appearances, all as a substitute player.

Verona, Pisa & Piacenza

He was farmed to

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

for the following two seasons, playing a total of 40 games (26 in his first season, 14 in his second). Verona acquired half of the registration rights in June 2007 for €300,000, but bought back by Roma in June 2008 for just €150,000. He played the second half of 2008–09 on loan to

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 ci ...

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 ...

. His loan stint was cut short in January 2010, and Greco was successively sent to another Serie B club,

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

, for the remainder of the season.

Return to Roma

Greco returned to Roma for the 2010–11 season and was immediately put on transfer list, but no club showed interest in signing him, so he was placed on the first team instead. An injury crisis head coach

Claudio Ranieri Claudio Ranieri Grande Ufficiale OMRI (; born 20 October 1951) is an Italian football manager and former player. He will be the new head coach of club Cagliari from 1 January 2023. Ranieri began his managerial career in the lower leagues in ...

to bring him on the bench for 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 ...

game against

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

, during which Greco entered as a substitute for the final 15 minutes and scored a goal only one minute after entering; the game ended in a 3–2 win for Roma. Greco's good performances led Ranieri to call him up for the Rome derby, during which he came on for injured Jérémy Menez during the first half and provided a solid performance in a 2–0 win for his side. He was promoted to the starting lineup for subsequent games against

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 fol ...

and

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

. Greco's contract was extended along with Daniele De Rossi and

Simone Perrotta Simone Perrotta (; born 17 September 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Throughout his career, he stood out for his work-rate, energy, and box-to-box play as a ball-winner in the midfield area. After i ...

in February 2012. Greco signed a new 3-year contract with an annual gross salary of €1.254 million plus bonuses. Moreover, the 2011–12 season gross salary also increased to €0.8 million. At the start of

2012–13 Serie A The 2012–13 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 111th season of top-tier Italian football, the 81st in a round-robin tournament, and the 3rd since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B. ...

, Greco was included in the pre-season camp, however he trained separately due to minor injury.

Olympiacos

In July 2012, Greek champions

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a numbe ...

signed Greco for three years on a free transfer. He scored his first goal for the Piraeus side in the Champions League game against

Montpellier HSC Montpellier Hérault Sport Club (), commonly referred to as Montpellier HSC or simply Montpellier, is a French professional football club based in the city of Montpellier in Occitanie. The original club was founded in 1919, while the current ...

in a 3–1 home win.

Livorno

In July 2013, Greco returned to Italy for

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

. On 20 June 2014, his contract with Livorno was terminated in mutual consent.

Genoa

On 20 June 2014, Leandro Greco signed a three-year contract with the Serie A team

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 ...

Cremonese

On 6 July 2018, Greco signed a two-year contract with

club

Cremonese Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label=Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po (river), Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' (Po Valley). It is the capi ...

Foggia

On 18 January 2019, Greco joined to

Foggia Calcio Calcio Foggia 1920, commonly referred to as Foggia, is an Italian football club based in Foggia, Apulia. It currently plays in Serie C, having last been in the top level Serie A in 1995. The team gained nationwide popularity as Foggia Calcio ...

for a fee.

Cosenza and Perugia

On 31 August 2019, he joined

Cosenza Cosenza (; :it:Dialetto cosentino, local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosen ...

on a 1-year contract. On 31 January 2020, he signed with

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 part ...

until the end of the season.

Südtirol

On 31 July 2020 he signed a 2-year contract with Südtirol.

Coaching career

After retirement, Greco stayed on at Südtirol as an assistant coach. On 9 August 2022, he was appointed caretaker following the departure of

Lamberto Zauli Lamberto Zauli (born 19 July 1971) is an Italian professional football coach and former player who is the head coach of club Crotone. As a player, he spent his career as an attacking midfielder, but was also capable of playing on the left win ...

as head coach. After being in charge of Südtirol for the first three games of the Serie B season, all ended in defeat; on 29 August 2022 Greco was ultimately relieved from his first team duties and replaced by

Pierpaolo Bisoli Pierpaolo Bisoli (born 20 November 1966) is an Italian football manager and former midfielder, currently in charge as head coach of club Südtirol. Career Playing Born in Porretta Terme, Bisoli started his professional career in 1984 with Pist ...

. On 9 June 2023, he signed a two-year contract for

Olbia Olbia (, ; sc, Terranoa; sdn, Tarranoa) is a city and commune of 60,346 inhabitants (May 2018) in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northeastern Sardinia, Italy, in the historical region of Gallura. Called ''Olbia'' in the Roman age ...

as their head coach. He was dismissed on 22 January 2024, leaving Olbia in the relegation zone.

Honours

Club

; Olympiacos * Superleague Greece (1): 2012–13

References

External links

Lega Serie A profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greco, Leandro Living people 1986 births Footballers from Rome Men's association football midfielders Italian men's footballers AS Roma players ASD Astrea players Hellas Verona FC players Pisa SC players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players Olympiacos F.C. players US Livorno 1915 players Genoa CFC players SSC Bari players Calcio Foggia 1920 players US Cremonese players Cosenza Calcio players AC Perugia Calcio players FC Südtirol players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players Super League Greece players Italian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Italian football managers Olbia Calcio 1905 managers Serie C managers