Angelo Pierleoni

Angelo Pierleoni was born on 15 December 1962 in Celano, in the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, a town in the Marsica area. He came from a sporting family. His older brothers Luigi, known as Gigi, and Alessandro both played for years between Serie D and Serie C1, and Gigi was a long serving captain of Teramo.

Angelo grew up in the Teramo youth system and made his professional debut for the club in the 1979-80 season, at the age of 16.

After his debut season at Teramo, Pierleoni spent two years at Benevento and returned to Teramo for 1982-83. At 21 he joined Fermana, where the coach Feliciano Orazi used him as a forward. He scored 17 goals in 50 matches over two seasons, won the Campionato Interregionale in 1983-84 and played the following season in Serie C2. He was one of the few players who wore the Fermana shirt as a young man and went on to play in Serie A.

In 1985 the Teramo coach Giorgio Rumignani brought him back to the club, and in 1985-86 Teramo dominated Serie C2 and won promotion to Serie C1, a season still celebrated by the club's supporters. Across his spells at Teramo he played 88 matches and scored 11 goals, mostly as a right sided attacking player.

He moved up to Serie B with Messina, where under Zdenek Zeman he scored ten goals in the 1988-89 season, and then had a brief spell at Brescia. With Cesena he played in Serie A, scoring three goals in 25 appearances, including the goal in a 1-1 home draw with Juventus. He then joined Ascoli, where he was part of the team coached by Nedo Sonetti that won promotion to Serie A in 1990-91, and played in Serie A again in 1991-92. He stayed at Ascoli until 1994, with 113 appearances and nine goals in all competitions for the club.

In total he played 52 Serie A matches with three goals and 131 Serie B matches with 20 goals, and more than 350 official matches with 53 goals across his career. In 1994 he returned to Abruzzo with Avezzano, winning Serie C2 again in 1995-96, and he ended his playing days in the regional leagues with Celano and Angizia Luco, retiring in 2001.

After retiring, Pierleoni stayed in football as a coach. In 2002 Fidelis Andria appointed him formally as head coach, while the technical direction was in the hands of Roberto Cappellacci, who had just retired as a player and did not yet hold a coaching licence. From 2007 to 2010 he worked on the technical staff at Celano, and in the 2010-11 season he took charge of Luco Canistro in Serie D, leaving by mutual consent after the second round of matches. He coached Celano again in 2012.

In his later years Pierleoni settled in Fermo, the town where he had made his name as a young player with Fermana. In March 2026 he married Edelweiss Ferri, from Fermo. He had two sons, Jacopo and Alessandro. His illness kept him away from the celebration in Teramo of the fortieth anniversary of the 1986 promotion, where his absence was noted with regret.

Angelo Pierleoni died in Fermo on 18 October 2026, aged 63, after a long illness. The nature of the illness was not made public. His death was reported the same day by Corriere Adriatico, Corriere Romagna, Cronache Fermane and other regional media in the Marche, Abruzzo and Romagna. The mayor of Fermo, Alberto Maria Scarfini, said the town remembered him as a genuine, passionate person who was deeply attached to the city and to Fermana. His funeral was announced for 15.30 in the church of Santa Caterina in Fermo.

Pierleoni is remembered by supporters of Teramo as a symbol of the side that won Serie C2 in 1986, by Ascoli supporters for his part in the 1991 promotion to Serie A, and in Cesena for his goal against Juventus. Regional newspapers described him as a gifted player of indomitable character who rose from small Abruzzo and Marche clubs to the top level of Italian football.