Brought up in the northern suburbs, Reno Piscopo will return to Melbourne to represent Melbourne Victory after spending half of his life away from home.
The 26-year-old left Melbourne at the age of 13 to join Italian giants Inter and their academy in Milan. Piscopo played his sub-juniors at North Coburg United and Fawkner Blues before making the biggest jump of his young career when joining the Nerazzurri.
The attacker spent six seasons at Inter, working through the age ranks and winning the Under 17 Italian Supercoppa before joining Torino and later, Serie C side Renate where he made his first team debut in Italy. Piscopo spent two seasons in the Italian third division making the promotion play-offs in his first season and was a regular in his second season in Serie C.
A move closer to home was next up on the cards for Piscopo as he joined the Wellington Phoenix in 2019. A link-up with Ufuk Talay saw the attacker shine as he featured heavily in the Nix attacking play, scoring nine goals in his time in New Zealand. His form was also rewarded with an A-League All-Stars call-up in 2022 to take on Barcelona where he found the back of the net in the contest.
Piscopo spent the last two seasons in Newcastle and will officially heading back home this season in a Melbourne Victory shirt looking to turn it on for the Victory faithful.
Reno Piscopo Q&A
How would you personally describe your playing style?
I’m a creative player who likes to take risks, link up with team mates and take on players.
What is your impression of Melbourne Victory?
My impression of Melbourne victory is that it’s a great club, a big club with a lot of history and ambition, with the best fans and it’s always been something I wanted to be apart of.
What do you think you’ve learnt most/your favourite lessons as a footballer so far?
Football has taught me to be strong minded during the best as well as the darkest of times, as there is a lot of sacrifices that come with this career. Enjoy the wins and learn from the losses.
What are you hoping to achieve personally and as a team this season?
Personally, I want to start enjoying my football again, I feel like I have something to prove and I’m looking forward to doing so.
I feel like this move has been a long time in the making and I am happy to finally be here. Being a Melbourne boy makes it even more special to play for this club so I can’t wait to get started and play at AAMI park in front of everyone.
I believe this team is more than capable of winning many trophies and my goal with the them is to win it all this season.
