Mauro Meluso was born in Cosenza on January 1, 1965.
He started his career in a local club but at 14 he moved to Rende and later began playing for the Lazio youth teams. He debuted in Serie B on May 8 1983 in the home match that saw Lazio draw with Reggiana 3-3 despite leading the match three times thanks to a Bruno Giordano hat trick. His debut in Serie A arrived on October 2, 1983, in the game against Juventus. He made a total of 13 appearances for Lazio (12 in Serie A and one in Serie B) with two goals that he scored in the match against Avellino.
In 1984 he signed for Cremonese in Serie A but did not play much, just 12 appearances with one goal. He played the rest of his career in the lower tiers with Salernitana, three seasons at Monopoli, two at Casarano and one with Messina. In 1989 he did have the chance to get back to higher league football when he signed for Foggia in Serie B under future Lazio manager Zdenek Zeman, future players Beppe Signori, Roberto Rambaudi and Francesco Mancini and former player Francesco Fonte. In that team there was also Antonio Manicone who would be assistant to Vladimir Petkovic. Meluso however made just 15 appearances with three goals.
His last years of active football were with Fermana where also thanks to his six goals in 1993-94 the club was promoted to Serie C2. His last season was in 1994-95.
Since retiring from football he has become sports director and worked for many clubs: Foggia, Padova, Pisa, Sangiovannese, Teramo and Ternana. In 2011 he was in charge of the technical sector of Frosinone and in 2014 sports director at Cosenza. He took on the same role in Serie C with Lecce and thanks to his work the club got a double promotion in two years and managed to return to Serie A in 2019. He stopped working for them in 2020 and signed with Spezia. He stayed a year.
In July 2023 he was nominated Sports Director for Napoli, but was not confirmed for the 2024-25 season.
Mauro Meluso was a good forward, very quick. At Lazio he was overshadowed by Bruno Giordano and perhaps was still too young to take over the role of centre forward when Giordano broke his leg in the 1983-84 season.
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | Serie A | Serie B |
1982-83 | 1 | - | 1 |
1983-84 | 12 (2) | 12 (2) | - |
Total | 13 (2) | 12 (2) | 1 |
Sources
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