Alessandro Faiolhe Amantino (; born 1 August 1980 in

Ipatinga Ipatinga is a municipality in eastern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The city was founded on 29 April 1964 and covers a total area of . Its population is 267,333 as of 2021. It is part of the Vale do Aço (Steel Valley) metropolitan area (populati ...

, Brazil), more commonly known as Mancini (), is a Brazilian football coach and former player. Mancini started his career playing as a

right-back 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

Atlético Mineiro Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to: Sports Teams Athletico *Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy *Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic Cl ...

in 1999. After moving to Italy in 2003, he was converted into an attacking player. During his time with

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

, Mancini was famed for his

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. A ...

skills and use of

feints Feint is a French term that entered English via the discipline of swordsmanship and fencing. Feints are maneuvers designed to distract or mislead, done by giving the impression that a certain maneuver will take place, while in fact another, or e ...

, especially his step-overs, playing mainly as a winger on either flank, and occasionally as a

second striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

and an

attacking 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 ...

. At international level, he made nine appearances for

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

between 2004 and 2008, and was a member of the squad that won the

2004 Copa América The 2004 Copa América was the 41st edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body, and was held i ...

Club career

Early career

Regarded as a promising talent, Mancini began his career in his homeland of Brazil with his hometown club,

, where he remained from 1999 to 2002. During that time he had two loan spells, at Portuguesa and at São Caetano in 2001.

Venezia

He was signed by

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 ...

side AC Venezia in January 2003. During that time he struggled to adapt to Italian football, and was criticised by the Venezia manager for his errors, and for his habit of controlling the ball with the outside of his foot, which in Italy is considered unconventional. Mancini only made 13 appearances for Venezia that season. In the summer of 2003 he was signed by

for nominal fees totalling €1,000.

Roma

Having lost

Cafu Marcos Evangelista de Morais (born 7 June 1970), known as Cafu (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Known for his pace and energetic attacking runs along the right flank, he is regarded as one of the gr ...

, Roma needed a replacement at right-back, but with his early performances in Italy being far from convincing, many Roma fans were sceptical about his ability. However, their then-manager Fabio Capello gave the Brazilian a chance, and Mancini went on to complete a consistent first season 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 Cop ...

, the highlight being a backheel flick from a set piece in the

Derby della Capitale The Derby della Capitale ( en, Derby of the capital city), also known as Derby Capitolino and Derby del Cupolone, as well as The Rome Derby in English and Derby di Roma in Italian, is the football local derby in Rome, Italy, between Lazio and Ro ...

against S.S. Lazio. In the 2005–06 season, Mancini began to find his top form, once again becoming a key player for the Roma side. Following the Calciopoli scandal, Roma qualified for the

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 ...

, giving Mancini the chance to play at the highest level of club football. In the last 16 of the

2006–07 UEFA Champions League The 2006–07 UEFA Champions League was the 15th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since it was rebranded from the European Cup, and the 52nd season overall. The final was contested by Milan ...

, Mancini scored a goal against

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

after beating their defender

Anthony Réveillère Anthony Guy Marie Réveillère (born 10 November 1979) is a French former professional footballer who played as a right-back. He spent most of his professional career with Rennes and Lyon, amassing Ligue 1 totals of 426 matches and five goal ...

with several stepovers before firing the ball high into the net. That same year, Mancini also celebrated his first silverware since arriving in Italy as Roma won the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

, beating

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 ...

in the final. In the 2007–08 season, Mancini scored eight league goals as Roma reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League and finished as runners-up in

for the second year running. He did not have the best of seasons though, in what would prove to be his last in Rome.

Internazionale

Mancini (Brazilian footballer) - Inter Mailand (5)

After the appointment of José Mourinho, Mancini was signed by Internazionale for €13 million, along with

Ricardo Quaresma Ricardo Andrade Quaresma Bernardo (; born 26 September 1983) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a winger. He began his career at Sporting CP and went on to play for Barcelona, Inter Milan, Porto (twice), Chelsea, Beşiktaş ...

and

Sulley Muntari Suleyman Ali "Sulley" Muntari (born 27 August 1984) is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his career in Italy, playing for clubs such as Udinese, Internazionale, and Milan. During his time w ...

in his maiden season. (Although Mancini was a long desired target of

Massimo Moratti Massimo Moratti (born 16 May 1945) is an Italian billionaire petroleum businessman, the former owner of Inter Milan and chairman of the Saras Group, founded in 1962 by his father, industrialist Angelo Moratti. The main production site of the Sar ...

and ex-coach

Roberto Mancini Roberto Mancini (; born 27 November 1964) is an Italian football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of the Italy national team. As a player, Mancini operated as a deep-lying forward, and was best known for his time at Sa ...

). However, he failed to become a first team regular due to his lack of consistency.

Milan

On 1 February 2010, he moved to city rivals

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 loan for the remainder of the 2009–10 season, with an option for them to acquire half of the player's rights at the end of the loan spell. He made his debut for Milan in a scoreless draw against

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 ...

Return to Brazil

He returned to

on 5 January 2011, signing a three-year contract. In June 2012, Mancini joined Esporte Clube Bahia. He played for the team until the end of the year. After spending 2013 as a free agent, in January 2014 Mancini signed with Villa Nova for their Minas Gerais state league campaign. He scored seven goals, making him the top-scorer of the league. At the end of the state league season, Mancini signed a contract with Série B team América until December 2014. In January 2016, the Villa Nova-MG agreed to hire Mancini for the next season.

Managerial career

On 7 August 2019, Mancini signed his first manager contract with

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 Foggia. His short-lived experience as Foggia boss ended 2 September 2019, as he resigned after the first league game, a 0–1 away loss to Fasano. On 1 September 2020, Mancini took over as the new head coach of Brazilian club Villa Nova. He was successively sacked on 8 October 2020, only to be reinstated the next day. He left the club by the end of the

2020 Campeonato Brasileiro Série D The 2020 Campeonato Brasileiro Série D was a football competition held in Brazil, equivalent to the fourth division. The competition was originally scheduled to begin on 3 May and end on 22 November, however due to the COVID-19 pandemic the tourn ...

season.

Personal life

Name and background

His nickname, Mancini, is a diminutive form of , the Portuguese word for 'calm'. His surname is, in the Iberian fashion, a composite of his parents' principal surnames.

Portuguese naming customs A Portuguese name is typically composed of one or two personal names, and a number of family names (rarely one, often two or three, sometimes more). The first additional names are usually the mother's family surname(s) and the father's family surn ...

most commonly have the mother's surname first, preceding the father's (in contrast to the traditional order usual in Spanish names). Mancini's follows the usual Portuguese order: The first surname element, ''Faiolhe'', is a variant spelling of '' Faioli''; the second surname component is ''Amantino''. Mancini holds Italian nationality through descent, via his great-grandmother Genoveffa from

Veneto it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

2011 rape conviction

In 2011 Mancini was investigated for rape, as a result of an allegation by a Brazilian woman, following an incident at a party held by

Ronaldinho Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (born 21 March 1980), commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho () or simply Ronaldinho, is a Brazilian retired professional association football, footballer who played mostly as an attacking midfielder, but was also deplo ...

in December 2010. On 28 November 2011, he was convicted and sentenced to 2 years and 8 months after being found guilty of rape by the court of Milan.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Club

;Roma *

: 2006–07, 2007–08 * Supercoppa Italiana: 2007 ;Internazionale *

: 2008–09 *Supercoppa Italiana:

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

International

;Brazil * Copa América: 2004

References

External links

*
Profile at La Gazzetta dello Sport (2009–10)
*

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mancini 1980 births Living people People from Ipatinga Sportspeople from Minas Gerais Brazilian people convicted of rape Brazilian footballers Brazilian football managers Brazil international footballers Brazil under-20 international footballers Brazilian expatriate footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Brazilian people of Italian descent Citizens of Italy through descent Expatriate footballers in Italy Association football wingers 2004 Copa América players A.C. Milan players A.S. Roma players América Futebol Clube (MG) players Associação Desportiva São Caetano players Associação Portuguesa de Desportos players Calcio Foggia 1920 managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Clube Atlético Mineiro players Copa América-winning players Esporte Clube Bahia players Inter Milan players Serie A players Serie B players Serie D managers Venezia F.C. players Villa Nova Atlético Clube managers Villa Nova Atlético Clube players