Graziano Pelle is a professional football player who plays as a striker for the Italian National Team and the Chinese Super League club, Shandong Luneng Taishan. He has also played for the Dutch football club, Feyenoord, and the English Premier League club, Southampton.
He represented Italy in their youth teams plus has played at the 2008 Summer Olympics and UEFA Euro 2016 for Italy.
Graziano Pelle holds an Italian nationality. He was born to his mother, Doriana Pelle, and father, Roberto Pelle in San Cesario di Lecce, Italy. He has two older sisters named Ilaria Pelle and Fabiana Pelle.
While growing up, he was interested in playing football as well as ballroom dancing. He chose to be a footballer and joined the youth team of the Italian club, U.S. Leece in 2001 to embark on his football journey.
His annual salary is estimated to be €16 million which he earns playing for his current club, Shandong Luneng Taishan. His weekly wage was reported to be £ 350,000 per week back in 2016 making him the 6th highest-paid footballer in the world.
His current wage is around £ 300,000 per week and is now the 10th highest-paid footballer only behind some others like Lionel Messi, Neymar, Oscar, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc.
He has a market worth in the region of £5.4 million as of 2018.
Looking at his professional playing career his estimated net worth could be well above $ 10 million.
With his enormous wealth, the star striker is enjoying life in a very extravagant and luxurious and loves to hang out in the most exotic and memorable places on the earth. He also owns some expensive cars including Ferrari.
His major endorsement deal is with Nike.
After playing for the junior club of Leece, he was promoted to the senior squad in 2004. He was transferred to fellow Italian clubs like Calcio Catania, Football Club Crotone, and Associazione Calcio Cesena as a part of the loan deal.
He later moved to Holland and signed with the Dutch football team, AZ Alkmaar in 2007 and was part of the team that went on to win the Eredivisie league in 2008/09.
The Italian striker then signed with Italian football club, Parma Calcio 1913 in the summer of 2011. He was further transferred to clubs such as UC Sampdoria and Dutch team Feyenoord as a part of a loan deal from Parma.
Pelle signed a four-year permanent contract with Feyenoord in early 2013 and later transferred to England and signed a three-year contract worth around £8 million with the English football club, Southampton in July 2014.
Pelle made 68 appearances and scored 23 goals for Southampton before leaving the club in 2016.
He is currently playing for the Chinese football club, Shandong Luneng along with Brazilian defender Gil, who he signed in 2016 for a transfer fee reported to be around £12 million and scored his first goal against Hangzhou Greentown on 20 July 2016.
After representing Italy at the U20 FIFA World Youth Championship in Holland, he got his first call-up to the senior team during Euro 2016 Qualifiers at the expense of Mario Balotelli and made his international debut for Italy against Malta as well as scoring his first international goal for Italy in the same match.
He was in the Italian squad led by legendary Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon at the UEFA 2016 Euro Championships in France.
Currently 32, he stands at a height of 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs around 84 kg. He is currently in a relationship with his Hungarian model girlfriend, Viktoria Vargas. His girlfriend is currently engaged in a Budapest-based company Attractive Models.
Together, the couple seems to enjoy loving each other and loves to post their pictures revealing their relationship.
They have been together since 2012. Pelle first saw her on Facebook and started texting her. Viktoria later started replying to him. They first met at a hotel where Pelle proposed to her by giving them 100 roses.
