Paolo Palmacci
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Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Paolo Palmacci | ||
Date of birth | 17 May 1984 | ||
Place of birth | Latina, Italy[1] | ||
Height | 1.71 m (5 ft 7 in)[2] | ||
Position(s) | Midfielder[2] | ||
International career‡ | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
2006– | Italy | 273 | (229) |
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 1 December 2019[3] |
Paolo Palmacci (born 17 May 1984), is an Italian beach soccer player who plays as a midfielder, having originally started as a forward.[4]
He has appeared at eight editions of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup representing the Italy national team, earning a silver medal on two occasions (2008 and 2019), and, as of 2019, is the most-capped Italian player ever.[5]
Career
Palmacci began playing football aged 6. He originally pursued association football, making appearances in both Serie D and Serie C1.[6]
In 2003, aged 19, he started playing beach soccer, in his hometown of Terracina.[4][6] In 2005, he began competing for the city's beach soccer club in the LND Serie A, Italy's national beach soccer league.[7]
Palmacci was first called up to the Italy national team in 2006,[1] aged 22, for an exhibition tournament in Réunion.[8] He was subsequently a surprise inclusion in Italy's final 12-man squad for the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup a month later.[9]
At the 2008 World Cup, he scored his self-proclaimed favourite ever beach soccer goal, an overhead kick in the quarter-final victory over France.[4][10] He then went on to score one of Italy's three goals in the defeat against Brazil in the final.[11]
In 2011, he won the domestic treble with Terracina (league, cup and super cup).[6]
Palmacci became Italy's all-time record appearance maker at the 2015 European Games in Baku, overtaking the previous holder, Michele Leghissa.[12]
At the 2017 World Cup qualifiers in September 2016, Palmacci reached 189 goals for his country, becoming Italy's all-time record goalscorer, surpassing Roberto Pasquali.[13] However, he has since relinquished this record to Gabriele Gori.[5] He also made his 200th appearance for Italy at the tournament, against Poland in the semi-finals.[7]
After 11 years with Terracina, Palmacci made a "shock" move to rival club Catania in 2017.[10] Later that year, Palmacci reached the milestone of 200 goals for Italy in an 11–4 victory against Ukraine during the Superfinal of the Euro Beach Soccer League.[14] In 2019, he was one of just two surviving Italian players to play in the World Cup final against Portugal, having also played Italy's only previous final in 2008.[3]
Statistics
Competition | Year | Apps | Goals | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup | ![]() |
3 | 1 | [1] |
![]() |
3 | 3 | ||
![]() |
6 | 5 | ||
![]() |
4 | 3 | ||
![]() |
4 | 7 | ||
![]() |
6 | 4 | ||
![]() |
5 | 5 | ||
![]() |
6 | 0 | ||
Total | 37 | 28 | — |
Honours
As of 2019 season
The following is a selection, not an exhaustive list, of the major honours Palmacci has achieved with Italy:
Team
- FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
- Runner-up (2): 2008, 2019
- Euro Beach Soccer League
- Mediterranean Beach Games
- Gold medal (1): 2015
- European Games
- Silver medal (1): 2015
- UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup:
- Runner-up (1): 2019
Individual
References
- ^ a b "Latina, la Nazionale italiana di beach soccer a Formia per uno stage al campo Coni". Il Messaggero (in Italian). 26 February 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ a b "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Paraguay 2019 – List of Players" (PDF). FIFA.com. 15 November 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 November 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ a b "L'Italia a un passo dalla vetta del Mondo. Oggi in Paraguay gli Azzurri si contendono il titolo con il Portogallo". Italian Football Federation (in Italian). 1 December 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ a b c "Intervista a Paolo Palmacci, il recordman dell'ItalBeach!". Italian Football Federation (in Italian). 29 July 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ a b "World Cup Beach Soccer, conosciamo meglio tutti gli azzurri mondiali". Sky Sport (in Italian). 20 November 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ a b c "PAOLO PALMACCI - EQUIPE D'ITALIE DE BEACH SOCCER : " LE BEACH SOCCER C'EST MERVEILLEUX"". Number5.fr (in French). 25 June 2012. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ a b "Paolo Palmacci nella Hall of Fame dei Mondiali". Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (in Italian). 10 February 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ "Gli azzurri volano all'Ile de La Reunion". Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (in Italian). October 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-09-18. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ "FIFA WORLD CUP: Lunedì si parte, ecco i convocati". Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (in Italian). November 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-09-18. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ a b "Acquisto shock della Domusbet Catania: Paolo Palmacci!". Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (in Italian). 17 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ "Brazil rule the world". FIFA. 27 July 2008. Archived from the original on May 19, 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ "Conosciamo meglio gli azzurri: i centrocampisti". Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (in Italian). 4 September 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ "Italia ai Mondiali 2017. Paolo Palmacci nella storia..." AnxurTime (in Italian). 12 September 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ "Beach soccer: le 200 perle di Paolo Pablito Palmacci. L'italia vola all'Europeo". AnxurTime (in Italian). 15 September 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
External links
- Paolo Palmacci, profile at Beach Soccer Worldwide
- 1984 births
- Living people
- Italian men's footballers
- Italian beach soccer players
- Men's association football midfielders
- European Games silver medalists for Italy
- Beach soccer players at the 2015 European Games
- European Games medalists in beach soccer
- Beach soccer players at the 2019 European Games
- Sportspeople from Latina, Lazio
- Footballers from Lazio