A record debut, a career engulfed by many club changes, up to Serie D. Now with 6 goals in the last six games he has launched his team to 2nd place in group C
Grandolfo plays… Monopoly. This time there are no unexpected events to deal with, but only probabilities. Those of regaining, at the last corners, a designer career, capable of checkmating that anonymity that the attacker from Bari found himself having to chase away from his feet several times. Those same feet that on May 22, 2011, at the Dall’Ara in Bologna, seemed to have traced the coordinates of a predestined career, even something more… Francesco Grandolfo, Ciccio as he is called, that day became the protagonist of something exceptional from a football point of view. It was the end of a sad season with Bari relegated to Serie B, while the coach, Bartolo Mutti, gave the young boy, born in Castellana Grotte, but a true Bari native, his first starting shirt in Serie A. Grandolfo was not gripped by emotion , indeed he showed off a repertoire of goals that unexpectedly lifted him, and who knows for how long, to the top of the history of the red and white team, but also of that of Serie A. Yes, because no player from Bari, but also from many other teams in the top flight, can boast of having scored a hat-trick away. A hat-trick in Serie A at just 18 years and 300 days and in just 26 minutes.
the examples
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Something truly exceptional, so much so that to find those who did best you have to enter where the legends of Italian football are positioned. For example, the youngest player to have scored a hat-trick in Serie A was Silvio Piola: he was 17 years and 132 days old when he beat Napoli three times with Pro Vercelli on 22 November 1931. And again, how can we forget the fastest hat-trick, that of the legend Valentino Mazzola who in 120 seconds scored three goals against Vicenza with his Grande Torino. It was April 20, 1947. Examples that help us understand the significance of Grandolfo’s debut in Serie A, which was then forced to slow down in the following years. Starting from Chievo, where he was first seduced and then inexplicably abandoned at the end of the season, when he was put aside for demerits certainly not attributable to the boy. From there a wander between Tritium and Savona, up to the lowest point in D, at Correggese. And then again Fidelis Andria, Bassano, Virtus Verona, Vis Pesaro, Sambenedettese, Legnago and Monopoli twice, interspersed with the experience at Arzignano. In green and white, already a protagonist in the 2021/2022 season, that of winning the historic playoff quarter-final, despite himself he was forced to leave the city to enjoy the splendid Monopoli sea.
home again
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The return to Monopoli in January this year, first to achieve last-gasp salvation (playout victory against Virtus Francavilla) and then to dream big again. At the helm of Monopoli, second in the standings, like three years ago, there is again Alberto Colombo, the mentor of a team that is surprising everyone and which has Grandolfo, or rather Ciccio-Gol, as its emblem. Like that time at Dall’Ara, he started scoring again in bursts. Six goals in the last six games, including the brace against Turris before the Christmas break. “Of course, I’m happy. And then scoring goals for a striker is always important, even if the group comes first here. In front of everything and everyone”, while he dreams of another feat with a dedication facing the grandstand, where his family is always following him led by father Michele and mother Lucia, who yesterday celebrated her birthday with a green-and-white cake . Monopoli is now their home too…
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