Michele Fini (born 14 June 1974 in

Sorso Sorso ( sdc, Sòssu) is a ''comune'' (municipality) of c. 14,700 inhabitants in the province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about north of Sassari. Overview Sorso is a tourist resort facing the Gulf of Asinara. Apart tourism, ...

Province of Sassari The province of Sassari ( it, provincia di Sassari, sc, provìntzia de Tàtari, sdc, prubìnzia di Sàssari, ca, província de Sàsser, french: province de Sassari, co, pruvincia di Sassari) is a province in the autonomous island region of Sa ...

) 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 ...

coach and former

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 ...

Playing career

Fini started his career at

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

n clubs. In summer 1995 he was signed by

Ancona Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic S ...

. In January 1998 he was signed by

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recentl ...

of Serie B. Fini's debut 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 Coppa ...

and last match for Salernitana was on 26 September 1998 in a match against

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

the score was 2–0 He was transferred to

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 ...

from

Ascoli Calcio 1898 Ascoli Calcio 1898 F.C., commonly referred to as Ascoli, is an Italian football club based in Ascoli Piceno, Marche. The club was formed in 1898 and currently plays in Serie B. The team traditionally play in vertical black and white stripes. H ...

in 2007, signed a two-year deal. He scored six goals in sixty six appearances in his time at the club. On 9 July 2009 A.C. Siena signed the midfielder from

Cagliari Calcio Cagliari Calcio, commonly referred to as Cagliari (), is an Italian football club based in Cagliari, Sardinia. In the 2022-23 season, they compete in Serie B. As of 2021–22, the team is temporarily playing their home games at the 16,416-seat ...

on a two-year deal. After his spell at Siena, Fini returned to his home province of

Sassari Sassari (, ; sdc, Sàssari ; sc, Tàtari, ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, ...

and spent the remainder of his career playing 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 ...

side A.C. Porto Torres. He formally retired in July 2014 at the age of 40 to take up the assistant manager position at Bologna F.C.

Managerial career

On 3 July 2014 Bologna manager

Luis Diego López Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

appointed Fini as the club's assistant manager. Fini departed the club the following year after López's removal. In January 2017 he was appointed as a member of Palermo's technical staff, a position which he left in October of that year to rejoin López as assistant manager, this time at his former club

. Fini followed López, with whom he moved to López homeland, Uruguay, in early June 2018, joining

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neigh ...

. Starting from five points behind arch-rivals

Club Nacional de Football Club Nacional de Football (, ''National Football Club'' or simply as Nacional) is a Uruguayan professional sports club based in Montevideo. The club was founded on 14 May 1899 as a result of the merger between ''Uruguay Athletic Club'' and ''Mon ...

, they led the club to a league title by beating that adversary 1–0 in the final. After losing by the same margin to Nacional in the next edition, López announced his exit in December 2019 together with his staff, including Fini. On 5 February 2020, Fini and López returned to Serie A, signing with second-from-bottom

Brescia Calcio Brescia Calcio, commonly referred to as Brescia (), is an Italian football club based in Brescia, Lombardy, that currently plays in . The club holds the record for total number of seasons (64) and consecutive seasons (18, from 1947–48 to 1 ...

after the dismissal of

Eugenio Corini Eugenio Corini (born 30 July 1970) is an Italian professional football coach and former player, currently in charge of Serie B club Palermo. A talented, dynamic, and hard-working playmaker, known for his precise long passing, flair, and his a ...

. López and Fini was fired on 20 August 2020. However, they were hired again on 6 October 2020. Two months later, the duo was fired for the second time.

Honours

Club

;Salernitana *

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 ...

Champion: 1997–98 ;Ascoli *Serie B promotion to Serie A: 2004–05 ;Catania *

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

promotion Serie B playoff winner: 2001–02 ;

Uruguayan Championship Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Championship winner: 2018

Individual

Top Assist provider: 2008–09 (13 assists)

References

Sources

Fini's profile at "Gazzetta dello Sport"
*http://www.gazzetta.it/speciali/statistiche/2008_nw/giocatori/2440.shtml *http://www.tuttocalciatori.net/Fini_Michele

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fini, Michele 1974 births Living people People from Sorso Italian footballers Serie A players Serie B players A.C. Ancona players U.S. Salernitana 1919 players Cosenza Calcio 1914 players U.S. Avellino 1912 players Catania S.S.D. players Ascoli Calcio 1898 F.C. players Cagliari Calcio players Association football midfielders Footballers from Sardinia S.E.F. Torres 1903 players