Del Piero-Trezeguet to Iemmello-Biasci: The Top Serie B Strike Partnerships This Century
Published on: January 2, 2025
Many attacking duos have left an indelible mark on Italian football, but few have remained together long enough to accumulate over 100 goals.
The special bond between Cristiano Lucarelli and Igor Protti at Livorno (53 goals in one season) and the dynamic Francesco Tavano-Massimo Maccarone partnership at Empoli remain etched in the memory of Calcio’s most dedicated fans.
But more than a decade on, the no frills duo of Pietro Iemmello and Tommaso Biasci have combined to surpass the hundred-goal milestone. In turn, Catanzaro are within reach of the Serie B playoffs spots.
Reflecting on the difficulties of promotion from the world’s most competitive second division, here is a collection of the most iconic Serie B partnerships this century, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
*All partnership valuations are calculated according to Transfermarkt (Market Value Over Time).
Cristiano Lucarelli and Igor Protti (2003-04)
Twenty years have passed since Livorno’s automatic promotion from Serie B: 29 goals for Lucarelli, 24 scored by Protti. The latter had backed up from winning the top scorer award the previous season (22) when Aldo Spinelli threw Lucarelli up forward with him.
And despite Lucarelli’s 29 goal haul in 2003-04, he was sensationally outgunned by Palermo’s Luca Toni for the Pablito (Serie B Top Scorer) who scored 30.
Unlike Protti, Lucarelli received a callup for his country, but both are mostly remembered for their best years in Livorno. Lucarelli chalked up the tonne – 101 goals in 146 appearances.
While was Protti was given the nickname Lo Zar (the Tsar) by Bari fans for scoring 46 times there, he was rightfully labelled Livorno’s Football God for the 120 he produced for Gli Amaranto.
Partnership valuation: €1.5M (Lucarelli €1.5M, Protti €0)
Diego Milito and Roberto Stellone (2004-05)
Genoa dreamed of a Serie A return through an emerging Argentine starlet and a seasoned striker who’d club-hopped through Serie A and Serie B for years.
Milto had signed from Racing Club – 33 goals in two years there – before a spell in La Liga. Five years later, he led Inter to the top of Europe. But in 2004-05, he would score 21 goals, accompanied by Stellone’s career-best 17; however, Genoa still fell short of promotion.
In 2024, Milito would again lace up the boots in Novara at the Serie A legends match, L’Operazione Nostalgia.
Partnership valuation: €3.5M (Milito €2.5M, Stellone €1M)
Alex Del Piero and David Trezeguet (2006-07)
Newbies to Italian football will be surprised to discover that Del Piero competed in Serie B during the peak of his career.
A daunting scenario for any defender, let alone second-tier, Pinturricchio and Trezeguet dismantled the entire league after choosing to stay at Juventus in the aftermath of the Calciopoli saga.
The Italian (20) and Frenchman (15) reunited after facing each other in the World Cup Final shootout (Trezegol missed that night in Berlin) to accumulate 35 between them in 2006-07, coasting to direct promotion along with Napoli.
Partnership valuation: €35.5M (Del Piero €13.5M, Trezeguet €22M)
Lorenzo Insigne and Ciro Immobile (2011-12)
Zdeněk Zeman’s Pescara is perhaps the most memorable in terms of prodigious talent. Immobile and Insigne spearheaded the Abbruzzo-based side with Marco Sansovini in support.
Immobile’s 28 goals earned him the topscorer award, while Napoli-loanee Insigne chalked up 32 goalscoring involvements (18 goals and 14 assists).
Neither of the two remained in Pescara the following year and later combined to win the European Championships in 2021 under Roberto Mancini.
Partnership valuation: €3.5M (Insigne €2M, Immobile €1M)
Massimo Maccarone and Francesco Tavano (2013-14)
Behold “Ciccio” Tavano and “Big Mac” Maccarone, one of the great cult couples of Italian football, forever immortalised as such in the Tuscan city of Empoli.
They dominated Serie B in the 2013/14 season: 37 goals in total, 22 for Tavano (top scorer) and 15 for Maccarone, earning Empoli promotion under Maurizio Sarri.
Maccarone would go on to be the Azzurri’s top scorer in Serie A for the next three seasons and then reunite with Tavano at Carrarese in 2020 in Serie C.
Partnership valuation: €1M (Tavano €500K, Maccarone €500K)
Francesco Caputo and Alfredo Donnarumma (2017-18)
Empoli’s never-ending ups and downs from Serie A to Serie B offer opportunities for talented attackers on the fringes of first-class football.
The 48 goals shared between Donnarumma (21) and Caputo (27) in 2018-18 fulfilled Aurelio Andreazzoli’s desire to return to paradiso as Empoli climbed from sixth to achieve direct promotion.
Later in his career, Caputo would earn his Italy call-up under Roberto Mancini and became the oldest player in history to score a debut goal for Italy at 33 years and 62 days.
Partnership valuation: €2.5M (Caputo €1.5M, Donnarumma €1M)
Alfredo Donnarumma and Ernesto Torregrossa (2018-19)
The following season, Donnarumma was once again the protagonist but this time at Brescia. He changed his shirt, but not his substance: he scored 25 goals and again won the Serie B league title.
Sicily-born Torregrossa backed up brilliantly with 12 goals, his career-best in Serie B. He’s since fallen short of replicating such form at Pisa, Sampdoria and Salernitana where he plays in 2024-25.
In 2023, Torregrossa debuted for Venezuela, and has since scored in two international friendlies against Syria and Panama. At 34, Donnarumma is still knocking about at Serie C outfit Ternana.
Partnership valuation: €3.8M (Torregrossa €1M, Donnarumma €2.8M)
Massimo Coda and Gabriel Strefezza (2021-22)
Another epic pair, another sensational promotion. Coda and Strefezza brought Lecce back to Serie A in 2021 after dominating Serie B. By the end of May, they had 34 goals in total, Coda with 22 of those.
Lecce’s ascent assured Strefezza of another tilt at life in Serie A but the Brazilian later switched to then-Serie B side Como, leading them to promotion after 21 years in the wilderness.
Coda scored 42 league goals in two seasons at the Stadio Via Del Mare and has since added 32 more at Genoa, Cremonese and Sampdoria at the time of writing.
Partnership valuation: €6.5M (Coda €1.5M, Strefezza €5M)
Joel Pohjanpalo and Christian Gytkjaer (2023-24)
The cult hero who sips beer offered to him by Venezia fans as he celebrates. I’m talking about the flying Fin, Pohjanpalo, who dragged the Arancioneroverdi up a division with 22 goals, bettering the previous 19-goal season in 2022-23.
Pohjanpalo was accompanied by Serie B specialist, Gytkjaer (11), who scored five times in four play-off matches in 2022, helping Monza gain promotion for the first time in their history.
Both Pohjanpalo and Gytkjaer have remained at Venezia for the 2024-24 Serie A season.
Partnership valuation: €4.2M (Pohjanpalo €3.5M, Gytkjaer €700K)
Pietro Iemmello and Tommaso Biasci (2024-25)
Catanzaro have scrapped for everything since earning promotion to Serie B in 2023. But the story begins two years before that when Iemmello and Biasci both made the move to Calabria where they unleashed hell upon Serie C.
During the Giallorossi’s promotion-winning season, the pair combined for 47 goals, with Iemmello clocking up 30.
The talent has always been there for the latter who is 32 years old. Many won’t remember Iemmello’s winning brace against Inter in 2017 at the San Siro as Sassuolo ran out 2-1 winners, but we’ve seen how formidable his past 18 months in Lega B have been, scoring 28 times.
If Iemmello is Batman, Biasci is his Robin, striking 14 times during the same period, with 28 more overall at Catanzaro. The 30-year-old from Tuscany scored in two consecutive games in December, first against Brescia, then in Palermo in front of 600+ travelling Catanzaro fans.
Of their 105-goal partnership, 42 have helped Catanzaro keep their dream of an unlikely promotion to Serie A.
Nonetheless, here lies the chance for Iemmello and Biasci to repeat the heroics of Tavano-Maccarone, Lucarelli-Protti and Trezeguet-Del Piero.
Partnership valuation 2024-25: €1.9M (Iemmello €1M, Biasci €900K)
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