PORDENONE. Last night, after a long drive started from the heart of Calabria, Jacopo Petriccione arrived in the city. The director, born in 1995, returned from Crotone to Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the region where he was born and grew up (in Gradisca d’Isonzo), to play in Serie B, with the Pordenone shirt. And for the neroverdi, together with Mihael Folorunsho, it is the hit of the summer.
This morning, at 10, the midfielder will support his first training session with his new team-mates at the De Marchi sports center, followed by the formalization of the deal, already closed with the loan formula with the right of redemption. The player will then be called up for the match against Perugia, scheduled for Saturday in Lignano, in which he will make his debut – probably in the second half – facing that Sasà Burrai who, from 2016 to 2020, played the role of the play of the lizards.
Past and present of Mauro Lovisa’s club in front, in short. To divide them the age (born in ’87 the director in force at Perugia), not the class and the jersey number. Just like the Sardinian, in fact, Petriccione will wear the number 8. There was no doubt about it: once the team numbering was made known, it was immediately noticed how the “8” was free, a uniform that usually belongs to the director.
It was purposely vacant, ready to be handed over to the man of order who was missing from the team. He will wear it willingly and with a sense of responsibility, the like: he will be the technical leader of the group, he will dictate the times as he had done in Lecce in the two-year period 2018-2020.
In Fabio Liverani’s three-man midfield, from the low top (but also from the midfielder) he had scored more than 60 appearances between Serie B and A, winning promotion and then touching salvation. A new challenge in Pordenone: median in a two-man department. For the Naonian leadership he is able to fill the role. The field will give its answers. Over time, in the eventuality, Mr. Paci will also be able to move on to 4-3-3 or 4-3-1-2.
Curiosity has it that, at the first cadet championship of 2020-2021, Petriccione was the opponent of the day of the lizards. It was September 26, 2020: the player was in force at Lecce and moved in the median with Majer and Henderson.
The match ended 0-0. Shortly after he moved to Crotone permanently, thus returning to the Serie A attended in the previous tournament. In Calabria he failed to shine: 17, anonymous, appearances.
And now, with the new coach Francesco Modesto, there was no more space for him, given that the coach prefers another type of midfielder in his 3-4-3. The 26-year-old from Gradisca, in Pordenone, aims to restart as another player did exactly six years ago. Which, at De Marchi, has left its mark.
This is Alex Pederzoli: in August 2015, from Pavia, the then director (and now prosecutor) moved to neroverde. He kept the category, the C series, but landed in a company that had just been fished out. Alex made history, despite performing at Bottecchia for only one season. He took the group to the playoffs, close to B and a step away from the dream. The gradisca also dreams big. And it is with a player like him that Pordenone can make the leap in quality, aiming for something more than a narrow salvation.
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