Paolo Palmacci

Paolo Palmacci (born 17 May 1984), is an Italian beach soccer player who plays as a midfielder, having originally started as a forward.[4]

Paolo Palmacci
Personal information
Full name Paolo Palmacci
Date of birth (1984-05-17) 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]

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
CompetitionYearAppsGoalsRef.
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Brazil 200631
Brazil 200733
France 200865
United Arab Emirates 200943
Italy 201147
Portugal 201564
The Bahamas 201755
Paraguay 201960
Total3728—

Honours

As of 2019 season

The following is a selection, not an exhaustive list, of the major honours Palmacci has achieved with Italy:

Team

Individual

References
  1. "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.
  2. "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.
  3. "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.
  4. "Intervista a Paolo Palmacci, il recordman dell'ItalBeach!". Italian Football Federation (in Italian). 29 July 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  5. "World Cup Beach Soccer, conosciamo meglio tutti gli azzurri mondiali". Sky Sport (in Italian). 20 November 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  6. "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.
  7. "Paolo Palmacci nella Hall of Fame dei Mondiali". Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (in Italian). 10 February 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  8. "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.
  9. "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.
  10. "Acquisto shock della Domusbet Catania: Paolo Palmacci!". Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (in Italian). 17 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  11. "Brazil rule the world". FIFA. 27 July 2008. Archived from the original on May 19, 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  12. "Conosciamo meglio gli azzurri: i centrocampisti". Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (in Italian). 4 September 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  13. "Italia ai Mondiali 2017. Paolo Palmacci nella storia..." AnxurTime (in Italian). 12 September 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  14. "Beach soccer: le 200 perle di Paolo Pablito Palmacci. L'italia vola all'Europeo". AnxurTime (in Italian). 15 September 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
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