Paolo Hernán Dellafiore (born 2 February 1985) is an Argentine-born Italian

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 lea ...

, who plays as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

club Mantova.

Club career

Internazionale

Born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

to Italian parents, Dellafiore started his professional career with

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. Since 1 ...

. Dellafiore had played for Inter since the 1999–2000 season and was promoted to the Primavera team, during the 2002–03 season. He made his debut with the ''nerazzurri'' in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

match against

R.S.C. Anderlecht Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, commonly abbreviated to RSC Anderlecht (, , ) or RSCA (, , ), is a Belgian professional football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Division A and is the mos ...

, on 7 December 2004. He then spent two seasons on loan to

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguri ...

(with Riccardo Meggiorini) and

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

Palermo

In 2006, he was sold to

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , 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 province. The ...

for €1.5 million as part of the deal that brought Fabio Grosso to Inter for (€6.5M). Dellafiore managed seven appearances in his first season with the ''rosanero''. He was then loaned to

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

for €100,000 (with option to purchase),US Città di Palermo Report and Accounts on 30 June 2008 where he had the opportunity to play more regularly, before being called back to Sicily in June 2008 (which Palermo paid Torino €400,000 to counter the buy option). Dellafiore signed a five-year contract during the 2008–09 season,US Città di Palermo Report and Accounts on 30 June 2009 but on 14 January 2009 turned back to

Torino F.C. Torino Football Club (), colloquially referred to as Toro, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont that currently plays in the Serie A, the highest football league of Italy. Founded in 1906 as ''Foot-Ball Club Torin ...

on loan for €400,000. After 6 months with

, Torino president

Urbano Cairo Urbano Cairo (born 21 May 1957) is an Italian businessman and media proprietor. Biography Cairo was born in Milan. His parents were originally from Masio, within the province of Alessandria. He is the first of four children born from the union ...

announced that Dellafiore will play for Palermo for 2009–2010 after the team was relegated.

Parma (loan)

On 3 July 2009,

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

signed Dellafiore on loan from

, for €250,000, with an option to sign half of the rights for €1.75 million.US Città di Palermo Report and Accounts on 30 June 2010 After the end of the season, Dellafiore returned to Sicily, but was later loaned out again to Parma on 20 August 2010, for free with an option to sign half of the rights for €400,000. He was sub-loaned to Cesena on 7 January 2011, for €200,000.

Parma & Novara

In August 2011 he was permanently transferred to

Parma F.C. Parma Calcio 1913 () is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, which competes in the Serie A, the top tier of Italian league system, following promotion from Serie B in the 2023–24 season. ''Parma Football Cl ...

, for free. In the same month he moved to Serie A newcomers

Novara Calcio Novara Football Club, commonly referred to as Novara, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Novara, Piedmont. The club was founded in 2021 by the Novara, City of Novara to replace old Novara Calcio that lost its professional s ...

for a peppercorn of €500, in co-ownership deal. In May 2012 Dellafiore returned to Internazionale for its Indonesia friendly tour in a 1-month loan. In June 2012 Dellafiore returned to Parma for €250,000, which also cost Parma an additional €200,000 as other fee.Parma FC SpA ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2013
PDF purchased from Italian CCIAA
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Siena

In late June to 1 July 2012, Dellafiore was involved in 8-men swap with

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

, which saw Coppola, Dellafiore, Doumbia and Galuppo went to Siena, with

Brandão Brandão (), in English sometimes ''Brandao'' (without the obligatory tilde), is a Portuguese language surname or given name and a place name. It may refer to: Places * Bueno Brandão, Brazil * Caldas Brandão, Brazil * Milton Brandão, Brazil * ...

, Pacini, Rossi and Iacobucci went to Parma. Non of the new players actually played for Parma, only able to bring financial success to both clubs. Dellafiore himself failed to play regularly for Siena in Serie A, only able to play twice before left for his first Serie B club

Padova Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of ...

in temporary deal. At the end of season Siena relegated, which Dellafiore followed the club for the new season. Dellafiore made his best season with Siena in

2013–14 Serie B The 2013–14 Serie B (known as the Serie B Eurobet for sponsorship reasons) was the 82nd season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams contested the league: 15 of which were returning from the 2012–13 Serie B, 2012–13 season, ...

, in terms of total appearances of 35 Serie B games. At the end of season the co-ownership between Siena and Parma was renewed again, however Siena was expelled from Serie B due to financial difficulties. Dellafiore became a free agent soon after.

Latina

On 23 July 2014, Dellafiore was signed by Serie B club Latina along with former Siena team-mate Ângelo, Farelli and Valiani. He left the club in June 2017 after the club was relegated to Serie D for bankruptcy.

Perugia

On 12 January 2018, he was signed by Serie B club

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

after six months of inactivity.

Paganese

On 5 February 2019, after sitting out another half-year without a club, he signed with

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, 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 ...

club Paganese. He left the club by the end of the season. In August 2019, he accepted to return to

on trial, after the club was refounded and forced to restart from

. He was however not offered a contract by the end of the pre-season training camp.

Mantova

Dellafiore ended up joining

club Mantova on 6 December 2019, signing a deal until the end of the season.Mercato Serie D: l’ex Palermo Dellafiore ha firmato col Mantova
stadionews.it, 6 December 2019

International career

Although born in Argentina, Dellafiore chose to represent Italy at international level and was capped for Italian junior teams a few times. He made his Italy U21 debut on 11 October 2005 against Moldova U21, he received his second cap for the Olympic team (de facto U21 team) at 2008 Toulon Tournament.