Draft:Valerio Antonini

Valerio Antonini (17 May 1975) is a global agricultural commodities trader and the owner of Sicilian-based football team FC Trapani 1905 and basketball team Trapani Shark. He is the CEO of agricultural commodities trader Quanton Commodities, operating out of Mayfair London.

Antonini was born in Rome, Italy and graduated from the Sapienza Università di Roma with a degree in electronic engineering. Antonini began his career in agricultural commodities trading at Casillo Commodities Italia as head of commodities trading. Here he established himself as one of the largest brokers of brute raw material for the government of Nicolás Maduro in part due to his relationship with footballing Icon Diego Maradona who is the namesake for Antonini's child. . Together the two facilitated trade deals worth over $1.5 billion between 2015 and 2018. In 2020 Valerio Antonini established his own agricultural commodities company, Quanton Commodities. . The company came under the spotlight in 2022 after the hiring of prominent ex-VTB executive Ricardo Orcel. Antonini has moved Quanton Commodities to specialise in 'frontier markets' such as Iran and Uganda.

In 2023 Antonini purchased the previously-known Pallacanestro Trapani football and basketball teams form Marco La Rosa for €1,240,000. The purchase fell under scrutiny from Ultra groups including 'Samb Ultras' in protest of the club becoming a commercial project. However, since the purchase, the club have found sporting success winning the 2023 supercoppa LPN.

Casillo Group
Antonini was head of commodities trading at Casillo Group Italia, a major player in the trade of soft commodities, between 2012 and 2022. Here he utilised Diego Maradona as a lobbyist to secure over 20 contracts with the Venezuelan Foreign Trade Corporation (Corpovex) to whom he shipped over 750,000 tons of grain. . Casillo's financial reports show the importance that Antonini's deal with Venezuela has had for its business - In 2014, sales to the country represented 9% of its sales, making it its sixth market. A year later it was the fifth market and reached up to 14% of its sales. “The countries of North Africa, Cuba and Venezuela are the main importers and our clients,” said Francesco Casillo, one of the owners of the group, in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica  of Rome in 2016.

Quanton Commodities
In 2020 Valerio Antonini founded Quanton Commodities, a global agricultural commodities trader specialising in grains, coffee and cocoa. The company has Benjamin Mancroft - a member of Britain's house of parliament with the current Conservative party - on its board, and Riccardo Orcel - a former VTB banker as its chairman. In its first year of operation it recorded turnover of 70 million pounds in 2021, according to regulatory filings, rising to $405 million in the first half of 2022. Antonini has continued to trade in so-called 'frontier' business markets selling 60,000 tonnes of German wheat to Iran's state-run buyer in 2022.

Trapani FC and Trapani Shark
Antonini is the current owner of FC Trapani 1905, a Sicilian-based football team, and Sicilian-based basketball team Trapani Shark. Antonini made the purchase of the two clubs in April 2023 purchasing a 70% stake in the two clubs. Following Antonini's purchase, Trapani completed a successful play-off run beating Locri FC 3-0 guaranteeing a promotion to Serie C, the third division of Italian football.

Antonini purchased the teams for €1,240,000 (including debts already incurred by the club), €1,460,000 for renovations of the club and €250,000 to transfer the A2 title of the Stella Azzurra to Trapani which will now take the name Trapani Shark who recently won the 2023 Supercoppa LPN title. Antonini has now expressed an interest in creating a multi-sports brand under the Trapani name which, although not common in Italy, has been very successful with sporting teams abroad.

On a Radio interview with Maracanà della Domenica, Antonini expressed his ambitions to return Trapani to the top flight of Italian football within the next four years. This affirmation has seen an ambitious renovations scheme to both the football and basketball arenas in Trapani which are intended to be open year round as 'sports hub' in Trapani. The teams growth strategy has recorded a sale of 3400 season ticket purchases across both clubs.