Before savoring it as a manager, Gianluca Petrachi he tasted football as a player. He was a midfielder, growing up in the youth sector of Lecce, he played in Serie B with the shirts of Lecce, Fidelis Andria, Venezia, Palermo, Cremonese and Ancona and in Serie A with Turin, Cremonese and Perugia; for Petrachi, who ended his career in 2003 in Taranto (in C1), also an experience in the English second series, at Nottingham Forest. He will return to Serie B, 12 years after his last experience at Torino.
The victories with Ventura and the capital gains
His first stint as a manager was in Pisa. In the 2007/08 season the Nerazzurri, led by Gian Piero Ventura and with Trevisan and Gabionetta in the team, they came close to promotion to Serie A, being eliminated in the playoff semi-finals by Lecce. Before Pisa, he had been ad Anconafrom 2003 to 2006, as team manager.
In 2010 Petrachi began his longest experience, al Turin, taking the place of Rino Foschi, of whom he had been deputy, since December 2009. In nine years the Granata have achieved a promotion to Serie A and two qualifications in the Europa League, as well as a series of quiet salvations. In Piedmont he met again with Gian Piero Ventura, chosen by him in 2011 with consequent victory in the cadet championship, but he also worked with Stefano Colantuono and also with Mihajlovic and Mazzarri. In Toro he also had Simone Verdi, Alfred Gomis, Alessio Cerci, Marco Migliorini, Nicola Bellomo, Valerio Mantovani and Joel Obi. Among his signings were Sirigu (acquired on a free transfer), Izzo, Nkoulou, Meité, Berenguer, Belotti, Zaza and Niang; one of the first hits was Danilo D’Ambrosio. Petrachi was very good at buying for a little and revising for a lot, demonstrating great skills as a talent scout. The list is long: Glik bought for 2.5 million and resold for 11 million (to Monaco), Cerci from 7 to 15 million (to Atletico Madrid), Darmian from 2.5 to 18 million (to Manchester United), Immobile from 11 to 19.5 million (to Borussia Dortmund), Bruno Peres from 2 to 13.5 million (to Roma), Zappacosta from 4 to 25 million (to Chelsea) and Maksimovic from 3 to 25 million (to Napoli) only for name a few.
The latest unfortunate experience
At the dawn of the 2019/20 season Petrachi became the sporting director of the team Rome, an experience that lasted less than a year. In June 2020 he was suspended from office, replaced by Morgan De Sanctis and subsequently fired for just cause. The Apulian manager filed a complaint against the Giallorossi club, which was initially accepted by the court; in 2023, however, the outcome was overturned on appeal and Petrachi had to return 5 million euros to Roma. In the capital the sporting director had, as players, Fazio, the former grenade Perotti and also Aleksandar Kolarov. The latter was in charge, for a very short time from June to July 2023, of the Pisa sports area. Last December he was close to Salernitana, as operational aid to Walter Sabatini.
(article 5 June 2014)
 and Rome: Petrachi, between business and intuitions – Salernitana News){kind=link}