Tardini Tales | Part 10 | Mateo Pellegrino, Parma’s All-Time Record League Goalscorer

Parma just missed out on defending their maiden Serie A title to a relentless Inter Milan in 2029, but manager Alessio Rinaldi remained delighted with the progress of his young side. Things were also developing off the pitch, as the Parma board announced plans to spend £68m on a new stadium, another £5m on the training facilities and boosted the club’s youth recruitment to “excellent.”

Parma’s plans were rocked as star man Kerim Alajbegovic demanded a transfer to “play with better players.” Rinaldi told him he could leave for his minimum fee of £64m, and Bayern came in with a new club record £66m offer. Rinaldi moved on backup midfielders Martin Baturina for £3.5m to Montpellier and Guido Della Rovere to Hannover for £1.3m, which boosted the transfer budget to around £100m. Rinaldi bolstered his attacking options with winger Stanis Idumbo for £15m from Monaco, Kendry Páez on loan from Chelsea and promising striker Lorenzo Baldari for £1m from Palermo. He also decided the squad needed a bit of experience, so he paid £475k to bring in Ryan Gravenberch for a year on loan from Liverpool.

Rinaldi opted to slightly tweak his tactical approach. Mateo Pellegrino dropped back into the left wing role with Páez competing as an advanced midfielder and Gravenberch coming into his preferred holding role. He also had the option to push the full backs up the pitch when in possession, which would create a 2-3-4-1 when in possession and a 4-1-4-1 out of possession.

Season 5 In Parma

The bookies slightly boosted Parma’s chances, predicting an 8th-place finish with 25/1 title odds. Inter are 3/1 favourites to retain the title, followed by Roma (4/1), Napoli (5/1), Juventus (6/1), Milan (17/2) and Udinese (18/1).

Parma began the season with a massive game at home to the champions Inter and with goalkeeper Zion Suzuki injured. Inter came out strong, but Parma grew into it and a clinical Gravenberch throughball found winger Cardoso Varela to slide past Ederson in goal. The winger turned creator just after the break, crossing for Francesco Pio Esposito to again score against his former club. Dumfries was sent off for a shocking challenge on Páez and Parma eased to a 2-0 victory.

Improving midfielder Sverre Nypan starred as Parma edged past Cremonese 3-2 and scored again as Gravenberch got his first Parma goal in a 4-1 thumping of Napoli. Dropping Gravenberch in as a deeper midfield looked inspired as he dominated the midfield before Varela scored the only goal at Juventus. Pellegrino’s hat trick inspired a 5-1 hammering of Sassuolo, which took the attacker one goal behind William Bronzoni’s club record 78 league goals, which has stood since 1953. Pellegrino equalled the record in a 4-2 win at home to Bari and laid on goals for both full backs before panenka-ing a penalty to seal the record in style in a 3-0 win over Monza in early November.

The unbeaten start ended with, unsurprisingly, a defeat to bogey team Lazio. A week later, in Saudi Arabia, they got revenge with a 3-1 Italian Super Cup victory before beating Milan in the Final to lift a second piece of silverware of Rinaldi’s reign. The 2020s wrapped up with a huge game as 2nd place Parma hosted surprise leaders Roma. Roma had the best of the early stages, including Suzuki saving a penalty and eventually took the lead from a corner. But Parma missed a mass of chances and hit the bar four times to lose 1-0 and put still unbeaten Roma 4 points clear.

Trickier Champions League Fixtures

Parma got a tough set of fixtures for their third Champions League campaign. They began with a 3-1 defeat at Porto, Gravenberch and Martim Fernandes earned a 2-0 win at home to Saint-Étienne before a 2-2 at Lille. Amenda’s early header nicked a 1-0 win over Spurs, before getting torn apart 5-2 by a ridiculous Real Madrid team and losing 2-1 to Atlético. Rinaldi had to rotate for Stuttgart away and they lost 2-1 to drop to 25th going into the final game. Luckily, they had a more straightforward final game and Noah Darvich’s double inspired a 3-0 win that secured a 22nd-place finish. That gave them a tricky knockout round tie against Spurs. Varela scored the only goal at home but they lost 3-0 away.

Building Pressure on Unbeaten Roma

Parma began the 2030s with a tricky run of fixtures. Their title hopes took another hit as they lost 2-1 at Atalanta. But Esposito’s smart finish just before halftime nicked a 1-0 win at Milan and Páez’s early goal earned a 1-1 at Napoli. Roma finally lost at Atalanta, taking Parma back level on points with them before Esposito’s back-to-back doubles earned a 2-1 at home to Juventus and a 2-2 at Inter, who’d crept up to join Parma and Roma in the title race.

The good form continued until, surprise surprise, losing 2-1 at Lazio, who they now hadn’t beaten in six league games! That convinced Rinaldi to drop into more of a 4-2-3-1, which started well as Esposito and Varela earned a comfortable 2-0 win over Pisa before Esposito’s early goal from a counter attack was enough for a 1-1 with 10 men at home to Milan.

Parma and Inter sat level on 66 points with 8 games remaining. But a 2-1 defeat at Roma while Inter lost 1-0 at Napoli saw the top three separated by just 3 points. Esposito’s late goal at Torino gave Parma an advantage while Roma stepped up with a huge 3-0 win at home to Inter. That teed up a three-way title battle with Parma leading Inter by a point with Roma a further 5 points back with four games remaining.

Parma started brightly at Monza as Varela got in down the right and crossed for Pellegrino to head in. Monza equalled suprbly but Parma responded with Nypan passing to Pellegrino to turn and fire into the far corner from 20 yards. Páez sent Esposito through for a third 10 minutes after halftime then curled in a delicious fourth, while Inter were drawing 1-1 at Como then fell 2-1 behind after 85 minutes. And Inter went on to lose, handing Parma the title with a game to spare.

Parma Calcio won their second Serie A in 3 seasons!

Parma concluded the season with a convincing 3-0 win at home to Udinese. That saw them win the title by 4 points from Inter, finishing on 85 points after 26 wins, 7 draws and 5 defeats, scoring a league-high 82 goals and conceding 36. Pellegrino and Esposito were the joint-third top scorers with 20 goals apiece and Varela and Páez were the joint top assisters with 12 apiece. And Suzuki stepped up his performance again, topping the league with an 83% save ratio. As a result, Suzuki won the Goalkeeper of the Year “F.Pupilici” award for the second time, Rinaldi won Manager of the Year and Most Valuable Coach, Parma won Best Club of the Year, Pellegrino won Striker of the Year, and Suzuki, Nypan and Esposito were named in Team of the Year.

Ending Tardini Tales on a High

This had been another excellent season, in which Parma very much came on strong once their European distractions ended. It was clear the squad wasn’t good enough to compete in the Champions League, but just about had enough to edge clear of Inter and win a second title.

Esposito led the way with 23 goals in 49 games, followed by Pellegrino (20), Páez and Varela (12), Fernandes (6), Davide Bartesaghi (5) and Amenda and Nypan (4). The excellent Páez topped the assists with 14, followed by Varela (12), Pellegrino (11), Gravenberch (8), Darvich (7) and Esposito (5).

However, with the FM26 Beta period now completed, Alessio Rinaldi decided that he had achieved all he could at Parma. Rinaldi departs his hometown club after 249 games in charge, of which he won 145, drew 51 and lost 53, scoring 468 goals and conceding 263. He leaves the club with £130m in the bank and debt free, despite having a new stadium on the way in the next two years, but with players increasingly demanding annoyingly high wages.

Thanks for reading Tardini Tales, and we’ll be back with more exciting FM26 series shortly!