Matteo Luigi Brunori (; born Matteo Luigi Brunori Sandri on 1 November 1994) is an Italian professional

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

and captains club

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

Club career

Early years

Brunori made his

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 ...

debut for

Foligno Foligno (; Southern Umbrian: ''Fuligno'') is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clitunno river system. It is located so ...

on 5 June 2011, in a game against

Ternana Ternana Calcio, commonly referred to as Ternana, is an Italian football club based in Terni, Umbria. The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana has twice played in Serie A (in the 1972–73 and 1974–75 seas ...

. On 1 August 2019, he joined

Pescara Pescara (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Pescàrë; nap, label= Pescarese, Piscàrë) is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 119,217 (2018) residents (and approxim ...

on loan from Parma with an obligation to buy. On 24 January 2020,

bought out his rights early and immediately re-sold him to

Juventus U23 Juventus Next Gen (), also known as Juve Next Gen or Juve NG (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, which acts as the reserve team of club Juventus. They compete in , and play their home games at the Stadio Giusepp ...

. On 24 August 2020, he became a new

Entella Éntella (Greek language, Greek: ), was an ancient city in the interior of Sicily, situated on the left bank of the river Hypsas (modern Belice), and nearly midway between the two seas, being about 40 km from the mouth of the Hypsas, and ...

player on loan with an option to buy.

Palermo

On 9 August 2021, he joined

on loan. He made his debut with ''rosanero'' in a

Coppa Italia Serie C Coppa Italia Serie C ( it, Serie C Italian Cup), formerly named Coppa Italia Lega Pro, is a straight knock-out based competition involving teams from Serie C in Italian football first held in 1972. Format There are a total of six rounds in the c ...

game on 21 August 2021, which Palermo won 4–1 against

Picerno Picerno is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is bounded by the ''comuni'' of Balvano, Baragiano, Potenza, Ruoti Ruoti ( Ruotese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pot ...

. On 26 September, Brunori scored his first goal in a 1–1 away draw against Monterosi Tuscia. On 6 February 2022, he scored both of Palermo's goals in a 2–2 away against

Campobasso Campobasso (, ; nap, label= Campobassan, Cambuàsce ) is a city and ''comune'' in southern Italy, the capital of the region of Molise and of the province of Campobasso. It is located in the high basin of the Biferno river, surrounded by Sann ...

, which allowed him to break the 10-goal barrier. Brunori scored another brace in the following home match, which Palermo won 3–1 against

Juve Stabia Società Sportiva Juve Stabia is an Italian football club based in Castellammare di Stabia, Campania. Juve Stabia currently plays in Serie C, the third tier of Italian football system. History The football in Castellammare di Stabia From St ...

. With his goal against

Turris ''Turris'' is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Turridae, the turrids. Description The generally large shells are variegated with spots. The fusiform shell is turriculated with a long, sharp spire. The aperture is ...

, he surpassed his personal-best tally of 13 goals, which he had reached in the 2018-2019 season with

Arezzo Arezzo ( , , ) , also ; ett, 𐌀𐌓𐌉𐌕𐌉𐌌, Aritim. is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of above sea level. ...

, and surpassed Lorenzo Lucca as top scorer of Palermo in

. On 6 March, he scoring a goal in a win against Vibonese, reaching

Şükrü Gülesin Şükrü Gülesin (September 14, 1922 – July 10, 1977) was a Turkish football player and sports journalist. Almost two meters tall, he was a strong and quick striker, as well as a free kick and penalty specialist, and played for Beşiktaş, ...

as player with more consecutive goals scored for Palermo (7). Brunori broke the record in the next match against Avellino. On 24 April, in the last league match against

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

, Brunori scored one of the two goals that allowed Palermo to qualify for the

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. The following 10 June, he won the "Trofeo Facco" for the best goal of

2021–22 Serie C The 2021–22 Serie C is the eighth season of the unified Serie C division, the third tier of the Italian football league system. Changes The league is composed by 60 teams, divided into three different groups. On 31 May 2021, the league committee ...

. In the play-offs, Brunori contributed to the final promotion of Palermo, scoring four goals in 8 games, against

Virtus Entella Virtus Entella, commonly referred to as Entella, is an Italian professional football club based in Chiavari, Liguria. Founded in 1914, the club currently competes in the . History 1914: Foundation The club was founded in 1914 as Foot-Ball Club ...

, Feralpisalò (2 goals) and

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 the final. On 17 July 2022, a couple of weeks after the end of the loan deal, Palermo announced to have permanently signed Brunori from Juventus, agreeing on a four-year contract with the striker. On his debut as a permanent Palermo player, Brunori scored his first hat-trick with a ''Rosanero'' jersey in a 3–2

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 ...

home win against Reggiana. On 6 June 2023, after captaining Palermo and scoring 17 goals on his first Serie B season with the Sicilians, Brunori signed a contract extension until 30 June 2027.

International career

On 15 December 2022, Brunori was called up by Italy national team manager

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 Samp ...

as part of the 69-player squad of "players of national interest" for a stage in Coverciano to be held from 20 to 22 December.

Personal life

Born in Brazil to Italian parents, Brunori moved back to

Assisi Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and ''comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born aroun ...

with his family at one year of age. He was raised by his mother alone, and later changed his full surname from "Brunori Sandri" to just "Brunori", choosing to keep only his mother's one. On 11 June 2022, just two days before Palermo's promotion playoff final against Padova, Brunori married his long-time partner Dalila at the Castello di Naro, in the city of

Cagli Cagli is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pesaro e Urbino, Marche, central Italy. It c. south of Urbino. The Burano flows near the town. History Cagli occupies the site of an ancient village on the Via Flaminia, which seems to have bo ...

; the marriage was originally scheduled to be held in 2020 but was then postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Italy The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2020, when t ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Juventus U23 *

: 2019–20

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brunori, Matteo 1994 births People from Macaé Footballers from Rio de Janeiro (state) Sportspeople from Rio de Janeiro (state) Living people Italian men's footballers Italy men's youth international footballers Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian people of Italian descent Men's association football forwards ASD Città di Foligno 1928 players AC Reggiana 1919 players Aurora Pro Patria 1919 players ACR Messina players SS Arezzo players Delfino Pescara 1936 players Juventus Next Gen players Virtus Entella players Palermo FC players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players