Lorenzo Lucca (born 10 September 2000) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Udinese and the Italy national team.

Lorenzo Lucca
Lucca with Pisa in 2021
Personal information
Date of birth (2000-09-10) 10 September 2000 (age 24)
Place of birth Moncalieri, Italy
Height 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)[1]
Position(s) Striker
Team information
Current team
Udinese
Number 17
Youth career
2005–2008 CBS Scuola Calcio
2008–2015 Torino
2015–2017 Chieri
2017–2018 Vicenza
2018–2020 Torino
2018–2019Brescia
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2016–2017 → Atletico Torino (loan) 10 (2)
2017–2018 Vicenza 3 (0)
2018–2020 Torino 0 (0)
2020–2021 Palermo 27 (14)
2021–2024 Pisa 35 (6)
2022–2023Ajax (loan) 14 (2)
2022–2023Jong Ajax (loan) 13 (6)
2023–2024Udinese (loan) 37 (8)
2024– Udinese 9 (4)
International career
2021–2022 Italy U21 6 (2)
2024– Italy 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 21:44, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 23:45, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Club career

edit

Early career

edit

Born in Moncalieri, Lucca began playing youth football as a kid for CBS Scuola Calcio, a local team in Turin, and then moved to the Torino FC youth academy at age eight. He later moved to Chieri, a club in the province of Turin, but was discarded and allowed to join Atletico Torino.[2] With Atletico Torino, he made his senior debut at age 16 in the Italian sixth-tier (Promozione), scoring two goals.[3][4][2] The following season Lucca was signed by Vicenza, with whom he made his professional debut in 2018 at the age of 17 during a Serie C league game against Sambenedettese.[5]

Lucca was recalled by Torino in 2018 and loaned to Brescia. After scoring 16 goals in 18 games for the Brescia primavera youth side, he was called back at Torino in 2019 and played for the Toro primavera side for the first half of the 2019–20 season.[5]

Palermo

edit

On 31 January 2020, Lucca left Torino to join Palermo in Serie D on a free transfer.[6] He only played three games for the Rosanero as part of the 2019–20 Serie D season which ended in promotion to Serie C for the club, also due to the league halt following the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

In July 2020, Lucca signed his first professional contract, penning a four-year deal with the Rosanero.[7] For the 2020–21 Serie C season, Lucca started as a understudy to Andrea Saraniti, but soon broke into the first team and became the team topscorer by February, breaking the ten-goal threshold after scoring a brace against Turris.[8]

Pisa

edit
 
Lucca running towards fans after scoring against Ternana

On 21 July 2021, Lucca joined Serie B club Pisa,[9] penning a five-year deal with the Neroazzurri. He made his debut for Pisa against SPAL and scored his first two goals for the club in a 2–0 victory against Alessandria. After bagging six goals in the first seven matches of the season, he stopped scoring, marking his season tally at six goals in 34 Serie B matches.

Loans to Ajax and Udinese

edit

On 5 August 2022, Eredivisie champions Ajax announced to have signed Lucca from Pisa, on a loan deal with an option to buy.[10] He became the first Italian player in Ajax's history.[11] He scored his first goal for the club on 6 November 2022, scoring against PSV Eindhoven in a 1-2 loss in the Eredivisie.

After the loan with the Dutch club expired, he returned to Pisa.[12]

On 7 July 2023, Lucca joined fellow Italian side Udinese Calcio on a one-year loan.[13][14] After a season as a regular for Udinese, on 13 June 2024, the club announced it had signed the player permanently.[15]

International career

edit

On 7 September 2021, he made his debut with the Italy U21 squad, playing as a substitute in the qualifying match and won 1–0 against Montenegro.

In March 2024 he was called up to the senior Italy squad for a friendly against Ecuador, but had to withdraw through injury.[16]

Career statistics

edit
As of match played 25 October 2024[17][18]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Atletico Torino (loan) 2016–17 Promozione 10[19][20] 2 10 2
Vicenza 2017–18 Serie C 3 0 0 0 3 0
Palermo 2019–20 Serie D 3 1 0 0 3 1
2020–21 Serie C 27 13 0 0 27 13
Total 30 14 0 0 0 0 30 14
Pisa 2021–22 Serie B 30 6 1 0 4 0 35 6
Ajax (loan) 2022–23 Eredivisie 14 2 1 0 1 0 16 2
Udinese (loan) 2023–24 Serie A 37 8 2 1 39 9
Udinese 2024–25 Serie A 9 4 2 2 11 6
Total 46 12 4 3 0 0 50 15
Career total 133 36 6 3 5 0 144 39

References

edit
  1. ^ Lorenzo Lucca at TuttoCalciatori.net (in Italian)
  2. ^ a b "Atletico Torino - Lorenzo Lucca: Esordio con gol in Promozione".
  3. ^ "La Bottega dei Talenti - Lorenzo Lucca". 24 September 2021.
  4. ^ "Lorenzo Lucca, tra Ibra e Jovanotti: La Rondinella vuole prendersi il "Rigamonti"".
  5. ^ a b "Torino, ecco Lorenzo Lucca: chi è il volto "nuovo" del raduno al Filadelfia" (in Italian). ToroNews.net. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  6. ^ "Colpo del Palermo in avanti, arriva Lorenzo Lucca" (in Italian). 31 January 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  7. ^ "Calciomercato Palermo, Lucca sposa la causa rosanero: l'attaccante firmerà un contratto quadriennale. I dettagli" (in Italian). Mediagol. 30 July 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  8. ^ "Palermo, da dicembre è un altro Lucca: 10 gol e sempre più decisivo per i colori rosanero" (in Italian). TuttoMercatoWeb. 18 February 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  9. ^ "LORENZO LUCCA È NERAZZURRO!" (in Italian). Pisa. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  10. ^ "Ajax and Pisa SC reach agreement on Lorenzo Lucca". AFC Ajax. 5 August 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  11. ^ "The first Italian in Ajax's history and Moise Kean's best friend". MozzartSport. 5 August 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  12. ^ "UFFICIALE: L'Ajax saluta Lucca: l'attaccante torna al Pisa dopo un anno. Poi l'Udinese" (in Italian). 30 June 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  13. ^ "Lorenzo Lucca a titolo temporaneo all'Udinese" (in Italian). 7 July 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  14. ^ "Lorenzo Lucca è bianconero!" (in Italian). 7 July 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  15. ^ "Lorenzo Lucca bianconero a titolo definitivo" (in Italian). 14 June 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  16. ^ "Lucca injury to postpone Italy debut". onefootball.com. 23 March 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  17. ^ "L. Lucca". Soccerway.
  18. ^ "LUCCA LORENZO". Tuttocalciatori.net (in Italian).
  19. ^ "Atletico Torino - Lorenzo Lucca: esordio con gol in Promozione" (in Italian). 11giovani.it. 3 October 2016.
  20. ^ "Atletico Torino in vetta, gioia momentanea? Il Cassine fa ricorso" (in Italian). I AM CALCIO TORINO. 27 February 2017.