Graziano Pellè

Graziano Pellè (born 15 July 1985) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a striker.

Graziano won two Campionato Primavera titles and the 2002 Coppa Italia Primavera.

He made his Serie A debut on 11 January 2004 in 1–2 home defeat against Bologna, making a total of two appearances in the season.

In January 2005, Pellè was loaned out to Catania in Serie B, being regularly used but failing to find the net.

In the summer, he participated in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship with the under-20 team, scoring four goals in an eventual quarter-final exit, and returned to Lecce for the 2005–06 campaign, only to be loaned again in the winter transfer window, again to the second division, now to Crotone.

In 2006–07 Pellè was yet again loaned to a level two club, this time to Cesena, where he had a breakthrough year with ten goals.

Pellè began his career at local Serie A club Lecce, and was loaned to three lower-division sides before moving to the Dutch club AZ in 2007.

He won the Eredivisie title in his second of four seasons at the club.

In July 2007, Pellè lost all ties to Lecce and signed for Eredivisie outfit AZ.

He stated in an interview that he had a choice of staying at Lecce, who would loan him to Palermo, but chose the Alkmaar club instead because of its willingness to give chances to young players.

His debut season, however, was largely unfruitful, as he struggled to replace PSV-bound Danny Koevermans, and finished his first season with just 3 goals in 27 games (16 starts).

He also played for the nation's Olympic team in 2008, but was not selected for the tournament.

On 28 December 2008, Pellè scored the winning goal in a 1–0 win against NEC.

In February of the following year, he netted twice in a 3–0 home success over Groningen, but was overall sparingly used by the North Holland side over the course of four Eredivisie seasons, being released in June 2011.

In early July 2011, Parma confirmed through its official website that Pellè had signed a multi-year contract with the club.

He scored one goal during his time at Parma, netting its second goal in a come from behind 3–3 draw with his former club Lecce on 18 December 2011; this was his first goal in Serie A.

On 31 January 2012, Pellè joined Sampdoria on loan in the second division, scoring 4 goals in 16 appearances for the club to help it earn promotion back to Serie A for 2012–13.

For the 2012–13 season, still owned by Parma, Pellè returned to the Netherlands, joining Feyenoord to become the first Italian to play for the club.

He scored 11 goals in his first ten games, including a last-minute strike in a 2–2 home draw against Ajax and both goals in a 2–0 success over RKC Waalwijk, also at De Kuip.

On 23 December, he scored twice more as Feyenoord beat Groningen 2–1 in the last game of the Eredivisie season before the winter break.

On 5 January 2013, Pellè signed a four-year contract with the Rotterdam club, to be effective 1 July.

His first goal since securing a permanent move to Feyenoord came on 30 January, scoring on a pass from Jean-Paul Boëtius as Feyenoord eventually fell to a 2–1 defeat to PSV.

On 28 April, he scored a first-half brace as Feyenoord notched an impressive 6–0 victory over Heracles.

At the end of the campaign, he had netted 27 league goals, ranking second in the domestic charts and also surpassing the recent records of Italian scorers in a foreign league – Luca Toni (Bayern Munich) and Christian Vieri (Atlético Madrid) – in the process.

Pellè was also famous for his "retro" haircut among Feyenoord fans.

In home games, many fans showed the same haircut as Pellè and there are still some tutorials on YouTube that teach how to arrange his hairstyle.

Pellè netted all three goals for Feyenoord on 25 August 2013, notching a 3–1 win over NAC Breda, and securing the club's first points of the new Eredivisie season.

He opened the scoring for Feyenoord in the seventh minute of their UEFA Europa League second leg play-off match against Kuban Krasnodar to bring the sides level at 1–1 on aggregate, but the Dutch side conceded twice and fell to a 3–1 aggregate defeat.

He scored another hat-trick for Feyenoord on 29 September 2013, scoring with each foot and from the penalty spot as the Rotterdam side defeated ADO Den Haag 4–2.

He scored twice more on 1 December, netting in either half as Feyenoord defeated rivals PSV 3–1.

After brief spells back in Italy with Parma and Sampdoria, he returned to the Dutch top flight, where his consistent scoring for Feyenoord earned Pellè an £8 million transfer to Southampton in July 2014.

He scored on his senior international debut in 2014 and represented Italy at UEFA Euro 2016, where the team reached the quarter-finals.

Born in San Cesario di Lecce, Province of Lecce, Pellè is from Monteroni di Lecce.

He could have chosen ballroom dancing as his profession after becoming national under-12s champion in partnership with his sister Fabiana.

He started playing for local club Lecce's youth teams; his father Roberto was a striker for Lecce in Serie C.

On 8 February 2014, Pellè scored twice and also missed a penalty as Feyenoord came from a goal down to defeat NEC 5–1.

On 2 March, he opened the scoring with a header from a Bruno Martins Indi cross, but retrospectively received a red card for an elbow to the face of Joël Veltman and a four-match ban as Feyenoord fell 2–1 to rivals Ajax.

After sitting out the ban, Pellè returned to the team on 6 April and scored a brace in Feyenoord's 2–0 win over RKC Waalwijk.

In July 2016, after two seasons in the Premier League, Pellè moved to Shandong Luneng for an estimated transfer fee of £12 million.

Pellè represented Italy at under-20 and under-21 level.