Cristian Bucchi (born 30 May 1977) is an Italian football manager and former player who is the head coach of Serie C Group B club Arezzo.
The Serie D outfit released him at the end of the season, and he took the decision to drop down two divisions to the amateur regional leagues (Promozione Marche).
The 21-year-old's promising talent did not go unnoticed and it showed as Serie A outfit Perugia took a very big gamble in some respects for a non-league striker.
Coming back to the club and seeing the likes of Ahn Jung-Hwan and Fabrizio Miccoli ahead of him in pecking order, lead to a very disappointing second season for Bucchi, after scoring just once in seven matches for Perugia.
However, things did not work out very well for Bucchi, after finding first-team opportunities hard to come by, with the likes of Czech forward Jaroslav Sedivec, Luis Oliveira and Nassim Mendil all above him in pecking order.
[4] Once again, he would have to wait for his chance, although with the likes of Fabrizio Cammarata, David Suazo and Luigi Beghetto already the first choice strikers, Bucchi would only feature ten times in his whole Sardinian career, scoring just once.
Bucchi joined Serie A basement boys Ancona in second half of the 2003–04 season, after a very disappointing half-season in Sardinia, in a part exchange deal which would see Roberto Maltagliati go the opposite way.
Bucchi's contribution would vastly help lead Modena to a play-off place, and scored one goal in the away leg against Mantova.
[9] The complicated deal also included Modena sold Tommaso Chiecchi back to Chievo and signed Bucchi outright.
He scored five goals during his five-month stay at Bologna, participating in the rossoblu's successful quest for promotion to the Italian top flight.
On 4 January 2011, he was loaned to Serie B club Pescara[13] and his contract with Napoli was terminated during the 2011–12 season by mutual consent.
The team also hired Bruno Nobili as nominal head coach and de facto as Bucchi's assistant in order to bypass the bureaucratic ban, as UEFA A License was not qualified to coach Serie A and Serie B level but UEFA Pro License qualified.
The club also promoted his assistants in the Primavera, Mirko Savini and Ermanno Ciotti to the first team and re-hired Massimo Marini as goalkeeping coach, who left the position along with Giovanni Stroppa in November 2012.
[23] On 20 June 2017, Bucchi was signed by Sassuolo, replacing Roma-bound head coach Eusebio Di Francesco.
[33] On 4 February 2025, after two years without a managerial job, Bucchi was hired as the new head coach of Serie C club Arezzo.