Fabio Paratici

Fabio Paratici (born 13 July 1972) is an Italian association football director and former footballer.

Born in Borgonovo Val Tidone, in the province of Piacenza, Emilia Romagna, on 13 July 1972, Paratici began playing in Borgonovese, a club in his native town with which he won several youth championships.

He was a right-back defender and midfielder; over the course of his career, he was deployed as a wild card in all roles in the defence and midfield.

In 1986, he moved to Piacenza, where he became captain of the Campionato Nazionale Primavera team coached by Natalino Gottardo that included future star Filippo Inzaghi.

He made his professional debut as a footballer with Piacenza in 1989, playing in Serie C1, the third tier of Italian football at the time.

During his career, Paratici frequently moved throughout the lower divisions of Italian football, playing for various clubs in Serie C1 and Serie C2.

In the 1989–90 Serie C1, he made his debut in the first team, playing 5 games in the season finale.

At Piacenza, Paratici won the 1990–91 Serie C1.

In the following years, he was loaned to the lower divisions, first to Palazzolo and then to Fiorenzuola, where he remained for two seasons, and won a promotion to Serie C1.

At the end of the 1993–94 Serie C1 season, Paratici was involved in a car accident; he suffered numerous fractures that left him injured for a year.

Paratici resumed activity in the 1995–96 Serie C2 season as a starter with Pavia.

He was not confirmed and briefly joined the Serie D with Sassuolo, and then played for Marsala.

In 1997, he was hired by Serie C2-demoted Novara, and signaled himself as one of the best players of the 1997–98 Serie C2.

At the end of the season, he joined the Palermo of Massimo Morgia, who had coached him in Marsala.

In 1998, he moved to Lecco for the 1998–99 Serie C1 season.

He then joined Savoia for the 2000–01 Serie C1 season, and then moved to Giugliano for the 2001–02 Serie C2 season.

In 2002, he moved to Brindisi, with whom they won the Coppa Italia Serie C in 2003.

He retired in 2004 at the age of 31, having played for 12 different clubs in 15 years.

After his career ended, he remained involved in football through management.

Paratici worked as chief observer and head of scouting of Italian club Sampdoria and established a successful partnership with Giuseppe Marotta that was repeated at Juventus, Italy's most renowned club, where he worked as chief football officer for about eleven years.

In June 2021, Paratici joined English club Tottenham Hotspur as managing director of football, resigning on 21 April 2023 after his conviction for financial malpractice in the Italian Football Federation Plusvalenze investigation.

The Plusvalenze sports trial also carried a 30-month ban from football, which FIFA has extended worldwide.

Paratici has also been indicted in an Italian criminal investigation into the same instances of financial malpractice and is currently awaiting trial.

He remained there until he ended his 15-year career at the age of 32 in 2004.

On five occasions, he unsuccessfully reached the playoff finals in both Serie C1 and Serie C2.

Upon retiring, Paratici was hired as the chief observer and head of scouting for Sampdoria in 2004.

During his tenure at Sampdoria, Paratici worked closely with the club's sporting director and subsequently its CEO, Giuseppe Marotta; the press called him Marotta's "right-hand man".

In August 2008, Paratici was allegedly approached by Urbano Cairo, owner and chairman of Torino, and offered the position of sporting director.

Sampdoria and in particular Marotta were upset about these rumours, and accused Cairo of going behind their backs trying to lure Paratici, who was still under contract with Sampdoria until 2009.

During this management, Sampdoria achieved important goals, such as the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round with the first team and the first place for the youth team in the 2009–10 Campionato Primavera.

Paratici described their work as "complementary".

In May 2010, Paratici moved from Sampdoria to Juventus, along with Marotta and coach Luigi Delneri.

At Juventus, Paratici was appointed head of technical affairs and sporting director by chairman Andrea Agnelli.

Sampdoria owner Riccardo Garrone was reported to be upset with Marotta for taking Paratici with him to Juventus, as Garrone had expected Paratici to inherit the role of director general at Sampdoria, and subsequently threatened to block any transfers to Juventus as retaliation.

At Juventus, Paratici is notable for his transfer moves that brought the club a cycle of successes, including the Italian defender Andrea Barzagli (2011), who formed along with Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini a top defensive lineup that came to be known as the BBC from their initials, the Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal (2011), and the forwards Argentines Carlos Tévez (2013) and Paulo Dybala (2015).

In 2018, he played a key role in the purchase of the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid, which remains the most expensive transfer in the history of Italian football.

In November 2018, Paratici took over from Marotta as sporting director, and then took on the role of managing director from October 2020.

On 26 May 2021, after eleven years with the club, Paratici's expiring contract was not renewed, and he left Juventus; his successor was Federico Cherubini, who was the sporting director of the club's youth teams and was promoted to technical director of the first team after Marotta's farewell.

Under his management, Juventus experienced one of the most victorious cycles in its history, with 19 total trophies, including an unprecedented, record-breaking nine consecutive Serie A (scudetto) titles, along with four consecutive Serie A–Coppa Italia national doubles and one national treble (Serie A–Coppa Italia–Supercoppa Italiana), as well as one UEFA Europa League semifinal and two UEFA Champions League finals.

On 12 June 2021, Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur announced that Paratici would be taking over as their managing director of football.