| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1975-04-08)8 April 1975 (age 50) | ||
| Place of birth | Florence, Italy | ||
| Height | 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in) | ||
| Position | Striker | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Praese | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Isolotto | |||
| Fiorentina | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1993–1999 | Fiorentina | 37 | (4) |
| 1996–1997 | →Bari (loan) | 21 | (3) |
| 1998 | →Ancona (loan) | 17 | (10) |
| 1999–2007 | Sampdoria | 241 | (87) |
| 2009 | Empoli | 13 | (3) |
| 2009–2010 | Brescia | 14 | (2) |
| 2022 | Signa | 1 | (0) |
| 2022– | Praese | 15 | (4) |
| Total | 353 | (129) | |
| International career | |||
| 1993–1994 | Italy U18 | 9 | (3) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Francesco Flachi (born 8 April 1975) is an Italian former professionalfootballer, currently playing forPromozione amateurs Praese.
Astriker, during an 18-year professional career in which he amassedSerie A totals of 137 games and 42 goals, he played mainly withSampdoria. He was also suspended twice fordoping.
Born inFlorence, Flachi made his professional debuts with local giantsACF Fiorentina, appearing in tenSerie B games and scoring twice as the1993–94 season ended in promotion. He made hisSerie A debut on 4 September 1994, againstCagliari Calcio, in a 2–1 win.
Flachi would appear rarely for theViola in the top flight, however, facing stiff competition from the likes ofGabriel Batistuta andLuís Oliveira - only three league games in each of his three last seasons. He also served two loans whilst on contract with the club, withA.S. Bari andA.C. Ancona (both in the second division), scoring an impressive ten goals in only 17 games with the latter.
After leaving his childhood club in the 1999 summer, Flachi moved toU.C. Sampdoria,freshly relegated to the second level. He scored career-bests 17 and 16 goals inhis second andthird seasons, under managerLuigi Cagni who had succeededGiampiero Ventura.
In2002–03, Flachi netted nine times in 35 games asSamp finally achieved promotion, as champions. He became known by theGenovese club fans as "Salvatore della patria" ("Saviour of the homeland" inItalian), and also welcomed his first daughter, Valentina.
However, Flachi's relationship with new Sampdoria managerWalter Novellino was not ideal, with the pair having numerous arguments on and off the pitch. The player paid for his attitude by remaining on the bench in the first half of the2003–04 campaign. As the partnership ofMassimo Marazzina andAtsushi Yanagisawa did not click, the manager began playing Flachi andFabio Bazzani with good results; the team eventually finished in eighth position, with 24 goals between Flachi (11) and Bazzani (13).
In2004–05, with 14 goals in 35 appearances, Flachi nearly helped Sampdoria earnUEFA Champions Leaguequalification, with the team finally ranking fifth, with the subsequentreturn to theUEFA Cup. Inthe following campaign, he continued to display solid performances (again scoring in double digits), this time accompanied byEmiliano Bonazzoli up front; however, the team failed to qualify from the UEFA Cup group stage, and finished 14th in the league (12th after thematch-fixing scandal).
On 21 September 2006, Flachi was suspended for two months by theItalian Football Federation as investigations concluded he and teammateMoris Carrozzieri were gathering information for gamblers in Italian football. Their club received a€20,000 fine.[1]
Trace amounts ofcocaine were found in Flachi's system in a random test after a 2–0 away loss against toInter Milan on 28 January 2007. On 31 May, he was suspended for 16 months and, later, the ban was increased to two years.[2] As a result, his contract with Sampdoria was canceled.
Following the ban, Flachi started training withEccellenza Tuscany team Pietrasanta, hoping to return into active football once his ban expired.[3] In June 2008, second division outfitEmpoli F.C. completed his signing;[4] he returned to competitive football in January of the following year.[5]
In the 2009 summer, Flachi penned a deal with another club in division two,Brescia Calcio. He played 14 games, mostly as asubstitute, until he was suspended again in January 2010 following a positive for cocaine in a test held on 19 December of the previous year; in June, he was handed a 12-year ban, effectively ending his career as a player.[6][7]
In 2021, Flachi announced he had been training with the Italy fifth-tier team Signa 1914, and was planning to make a comeback as a player when his ban expired in January of 2022.[8] On 13 February 2022, at almost 47 years of age, he played his debut game for Signa, playing the first 30 minutes in anEccellenza amateur league game.[9] He successively moved back to Genoa and signed forPromozione amateurs Praese during the summer of 2022,[10] with whom he finally scored his first league goal since his comeback in October at the age of 47.[11]
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Other | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Fiorentina | 1993–94 | Serie B | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 |
| 1994–95 | Serie A | 21 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 2 | |
| 1995–96 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | ||
| 1996–97 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1997–98 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | ||
| 1998–99 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total | 37 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 47 | 5 | ||
| Bari (loan) | 1996–97 | Serie B | 21 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 5 |
| Ancona (loan) | 1997–98 | Serie B | 17 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 10 |
| Sampdoria | 1999–00 | Serie B | 28 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 11 |
| 2000–01 | 34 | 17 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 19 | ||
| 2001–02 | 37 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 20 | ||
| 2002–03 | 35 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 12 | ||
| 2003–04 | Serie A | 28 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 11 | |
| 2004–05 | 35 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 14 | ||
| 2005–06 | 31 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 6[a] | 2 | 39 | 15 | ||
| 2006–07 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 8 | ||
| Total | 241 | 87 | 33 | 21 | 6 | 2 | 280 | 110 | ||
| Empoli | 2008–09 | Serie B | 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2[b] | 0 | 15 | 3 |
| Brescia | 2009–10 | Serie B | 14 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 2 |
| Career totals | 343 | 109 | 46 | 24 | 8 | 2 | 397 | 135 | ||
Flachi representedItaly national U18 team at the 1992UEFA European Football Championship. He was called up once by themain squad, for afriendly withIceland in August 2004, but would never make his debut.
Fiorentina
Sampdoria