Clerici began figure skating in 2008.[2] He initially competed as a singles skater before switching to pairs in 2020. His first pair partner was Anna Valesi whom he won the 2021 Italian Championships with on the junior level.[3]
Clerici considered retiring from competitive figure skating following the end of his previous partnership due to no longer being eligible to compete on the junior level and the increasing level of depth in Italian pair skating. However, Clerici's coaches, Luca Demattè, Ondrej Hotarek, and Rosanna Murante were contacted by Finnish-based Italian skating coach, Maurizio Margaglio, and informed that Finnish pair skater, Milania Väänänen, was searching for a new partner. Following a successful tryout, Väänänen moved to Bergamo so they could train together. They decided to represent Finland.[1]
The newly formed team of Väänänen and Clerici competed only once during the 2022–23 season, winning the 2023 Finnish Champions in December 2022. They were ineligible to compete at spring championship events as they had not attained their technical minimums through international competition in the fall.
Väänänen and Clerici began their season with the goal of attaining their ISU technical minimum scores to be eligible to compete at the 2024 European Championships and the World Championships.[5] The team mearned their minimums during their international debut at the 2023 Lombardia Trophy, where they finished in seventh place. Following the event, Clerici commented, "We are really happy to have reached the technical point limits for the European Championship and the World Championship... Next we will focus on the levels and the quality of the elements in order to increase our points."[6]
At their next event, the 2023 Finlandia Trophy, Väänänen and Clerici were warmly received by a home audience. They placed sixth in the short program and rose to fourth in the free skate with a new personal best score to finish in fourth place overall. The following week, the team competed at the 2023 Tayside Trophy, where they won their first international medal: a bronze medal.
At the 2024 European Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania, the pair finished in fourteenth place. They went on to compete at the 2024 World Championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the pair place nineteenth in the short program and seventeenth in the free skate, finishing eighteenth overall. Väänänen/Clerici became the first Finnish pair team to qualify for the free skate at a World Championships.[7][8]
