We’re here now. Fiorentina is ready to turn the page after the Italian chapter. Yesterday Raffaele Palladino made his second landing in Florence (the first last Friday for interlocutory talks) and is ready to become the new Viola coach. The official announcement is expected in the next few hours, probably immediately after the press conference that the company has called for 3pm today. The contract will be two-year, with a salary that should be around one and a half million.
His career as a footballer
Born in Mugnano di Napoli, Palladino was born with a mania for football thanks to his father Guglielmo, also a footballer who went on to play in Serie C with Sanbenedettese. He begins to kick his first kicks in his town’s team, Gli Amici di Mugnano. An external attacker with great imagination, Palladino was noticed by Benevento, who registered him while still a minor. With the Witches he made his debut in senior football, and then moved to the youth sector of Juventus in 2002, with whom he played two Primavera championships. It is with the black and white colors that Palladino begins to explode all his talent. 20 goals in the first Primavera championship and 21 in the second earned him a rise to the first team with which he made his debut by participating in the friendlies against Al-Ain and the All Stars, also scoring a goal.
To gain experience, the Juventus club sent him on loan to gain experience. First Salernitana in B and then Livorno in A, before returning to the parent company during the period in which Juventus played in Serie B for Calciopoli. He contributed to the rise in Serie A with 8 goals in 25 appearances. In Serie A with Juventus he had little space and therefore moved to Genoa where, ironically, he found one of the best goals of his career against Fiorentina: a back-heel goal that left someone like Sebastian Frey stunned. Palladino’s career perhaps deserved more satisfaction, but the many injuries he suffered did not allow him to shine as he should have. Parma, Crotone, Genoa again and finally Monza were the stages before hanging up his boots and taking advantage of his imagination and dedication as a football coach.
Humble and perfectionist
Palladino is giving back what fate took from him as a footballer as a coach. A very rapid climb for the Neapolitan, who in the space of three years went from coaching the Under 15s to the greats of Serie A. Seriousness, discipline and humility are his strengths on the bench. A perfectionist one might say, always looking for improvement. And above all ambitious. It is no coincidence that it was with him that Monza found their first victory in Serie A, beating “his” Juventus. With 3 victories in the first 3 games he became the coach with the most points obtained in the first 3 games under Berlusconi’s management, among other things without conceding a goal.
Thanks to its 3-4-2-1, Monza completely changes pace, and in two years even comes close to reaching Europe. Quick football and many vertical movements were the strengths of the red and whites. After a period of difficulty, this year he then changed his tactical system, moving to 4-2-3-1. It will therefore be unclear whether the coach from Campania will continue with a tactical creed that the team now knows by heart, or whether he will return to the three-man defence. And who knows, maybe from Monza Palladino might bring with him some of his loyalists such as Valentin Carboni and Andrea Colpani, who could become the first targets of a summer transfer market that promises to be hot for Fiorentina.
