Wladimiro Falcone (born 12 April 1995) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for club

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

, on loan from

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

Club career

Sampdoria

Born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Falcone is a youth product of Ligurian club

. He was the first choice of their reserve team from 2012 to 2014, while also appearing as unused bench for the first team.

Loans

On 25 July 2014, Falcone was signed by

Lega Pro 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

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label=Comasco dialect, Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and ...

in a temporary deal. The club won promotion to

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 ...

in 2015 as the promotion playoffs winner. On 20 July 2015, he was signed by another third-level club,

Savona Savona (; lij, Sann-a ) is a seaport and ''comune'' in the west part of the northern Italy, Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea. Savona used to be one of the chie ...

, in a temporary deal. On 9 July 2016, he left Samp once again 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 ...

in another temporary deal. The club was relegated from Serie B to

in 2016. On 31 January 2017, he returned to Sampdoria. In July 2017, he joined Bassano on loan. But in January 2018, he left for

Gavorrano Gavorrano is a mountain-side ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Grosseto in the western Italian region of Tuscany, located about 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Florence and about 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Grosseto. Gav ...

. Later he went to Lucchese on loan.

Return and loan to Cosenza

On 2019 he came back to Sampdoria, and he made his debut for the club on 29 July 2020 in a 1–4 loss against

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. On 29 August 2020, he extended his contract for Sampdoria until 2024; on the same day he went to

Cosenza Cosenza (; 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 Cosenza, which has a populati ...

on a season loan. During the whole 2020-21 season, Falcone established himself as the first-choice goalkeeper of the ''Silani'' and repeatedly stole the scene thanks to his performances, although he couldn't help Cosenza avoid relegation, as a 9-point gap between them and

Ascoli Ascoli may refer to: Places in Italy *Ascoli Satriano, a town and ''comune'' in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region *Province of Ascoli Piceno, a province of the Marche region **Ascoli Piceno, a city which is the seat of the province above ...

allowed the latter team to stay in the second tier without playing a relegation play-out.

Loan to Lecce

On 17 July 2022, Falcone joined

on a season-long loan.

International career

In 2014, Falcone was a second-choice keeper for Italy's U-19 side during the qualifiers for the

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply UEFA Under-19 Championship or the UEFA Euro U-19, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain and England ...

, behind

Pierluigi Gollini Pierluigi Gollini (born 18 March 1995) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Napoli, on loan from Atalanta, and the Italy national team. Having graduated from Manchester United's youth academy, Gollini began ...

Personal life

On 1 January 2022, he tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Falcone, Wladimiro Italian footballers U.C. Sampdoria players Como 1907 players Savona F.B.C. players U.S. Livorno 1915 players Bassano Virtus 55 S.T. players U.S. Gavorrano players S.S.D. Lucchese 1905 players Cosenza Calcio players U.S. Lecce players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Italy youth international footballers Association football goalkeepers Footballers from Rome 1995 births Living people