Pantaleo Corvino (born on 1 January 1950 in Vernole

Vernole

Vernole is a town and comune in the Italian province of Lecce in the Apulia region of south-east Italy....

, Lecce

Province of Lecce

The Province of Lecce is a province in the Apulia region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Lecce. Totally included in the Salento peninsula, it is the second most populous province in Apulia and the twenty-first most populous in Italy....

) is an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 director of football

Director of football

"Director of football" is a term describing a senior management figure at a football club, most commonly used in Europe. The exact nature of the role is often unclear and extremely variable and causes much debate in the sports media...

, currently working for Italian Serie A

Serie A

Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...

 club ACF Fiorentina

ACF Fiorentina

ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as simply Fiorentina, is a professional Italian football club from Florence, Tuscany. Founded by a merger in 1926, Fiorentina have played at the top level of Italian football for the majority of their existence; only four clubs have played in more Serie A...

.

After his father's death, he was forced to interrupt his career as a player and became non-commissioned officer

Non-commissioned officer

A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...

.

His early career in management started in his town, Vernole. He then worked for Scorrano

Scorrano

Scorrano is a town and comune in the Italian province of Lecce in the Apulia region of south-east Italy.Italian singer Dolcenera is from here....

 before moving to then Serie C1

Serie C1

Lega Pro Prima Divisione is the name of the third highest football league in Italy. It consists of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 18 teams each. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1....

 side Casarano

Casarano

Casarano is a town and sixth most populous comune in the Italian province of Lecce, in the Apulia region of South-East Italy. The town's economy is mostly agriculture-based, with olive oil being the main product. The Church of Santa Maria Della Croce is one of the oldest Christian sites in the...

, thus turning to professional football. During his 10-year spell there, he signed Fabrizio Miccoli

Fabrizio Miccoli

Fabrizio Miccoli is an Italian football striker who currently is playing for Serie A team Palermo.-Early years:After playing at youth level with Milan, he returned to his native Apulia in 1995 to join Serie C1 team Casarano, where he made his professional debut at the age of 17...

.

He was sporting director of Lecce

U.S. Lecce

Unione Sportiva Lecce or simply U.S. Lecce is an Italian football club based in Lecce, Apulia who play in the Italian Serie A. After being crowned Serie B champions in 2009–10, the team successfully managed to avoid relegation in 2010-11....

 from 1998 to 2005, gaining a reputation for scouting and signing new talents such as strikers Javier Chevantón

Javier Chevantón

Ernesto Javier Chevantón Espinosa is an Uruguayan footballer, who currently plays for Argentine club Colón de Santa Fe.He obtained a Spanish passport after playing a few years in Spain.-Lecce:...

, Valeri Bojinov

Valeri Bojinov

Valeri Emilov Bozhinov , commonly known as Valeri Bojinov, is a Bulgarian footballer who currently plays for Sporting CP.-Biography:Born in the Bulgarian town of Gorna Oryahovitsa, Bozhinov moved to Malta at the age of 12 with his mother Pepa, a former Bulgarian national basketball team player and...

 (whom he discovered at the age of 14 while playing for Pietà Hotspurs), Mirko Vučinić

Mirko Vucinic

Mirko Vučinić is a Montenegrin footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Juventus. Originally from the city of Nikšić, Vučinić found himself playing for the local team there during his early teen years...

 and midfielder

Midfielder

A midfielder is an association football position. Some midfielders play a more defensive role, while others blur the boundaries between midfielders and forwards. The number of midfielders a team uses during a match may vary, depending on the team's formation and each individual player's role...

 Cristian Ledesma

Cristian Daniel Ledesma

Cristian Daniel Ledesma is a footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club Lazio. A dual citizen of Argentina and Italy, he represents the latter at international level since November 2010....

. In June 2000, he was about to sign Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n player Dimitar Berbatov

Dimitar Berbatov

Dimitar Ivanov Berbatov is a Bulgarian footballer who plays as a forward for Manchester United. He captained the Bulgarian national team from 2006 to 2010, and is its all-time leading goalscorer and has also won the Bulgarian Footballer of the Year a record seven times, surpassing the number of...

, who would later enjoy successful career. Corvino said in an interview that Berbatov had already underwent a medical, but when it came to signing the contract, the move collapsed, probably due to another request by the player himself.

He has been in the books of Fiorentina since 2005. At Fiorentina, he most notably signed Zdravko Kuzmanović

Zdravko Kuzmanovic

Zdravko Kuzmanović is a Swiss-born Serbian footballer who plays as a midfielder for VfB Stuttgart in the Germanic Bundesliga.-Early life:...

, Stevan Jovetić

Stevan Jovetic

Stevan Jovetić is a Montenegrin footballer who plays for Serie A club ACF Fiorentina...

, Pablo Daniel Osvaldo

Pablo Daniel Osvaldo

Pablo Daniel Osvaldo is an Argentine-born Italian footballer, who plays as a striker for Serie A club for Roma.-Club career:...

, Felipe Melo, Juan Manuel Vargas

Juan Manuel Vargas

Juan Manuel Vargas Risco , is a Peruvian footballer who plays as a wing-back for Italian Serie A club A.C.F. Fiorentina, and the Peru national team and is currently the team's captain...

, Artur Boruc

Artur Boruc

Artur Boruc is a Polish footballer who plays for Serie A club Fiorentina as a goalkeeper. On 20 October 2008, Boruc was one of 55 players shortlisted for the FIFPro World XI Player Awards.-Pogoń Siedlce:...

, Luca Toni

Luca Toni

Luca Toni, Ufficiale OMRI is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who currently plays for Serie A club Juventus. He has had successful spells at top clubs such as Palermo, Fiorentina, Bayern Munich, and Roma...

, Alberto Gilardino

Alberto Gilardino

Alberto Gilardino, Ufficiale OMRI is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Fiorentina and the Italian national team....

, Adrian Mutu

Adrian Mutu

Adrian Mutu is a Romanian footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Cesena.-Argeş Piteşti:Mutu began his professional career with his home club Argeş Piteşti...

and many other players .