Career
Bonini was a hardworking and versatile box-to-box midfielder, who was frequently deployed as a central midfielder or as a defensive midfielder during his time at. He was known in particular for his pace and stamina, which earned him the nickname "Platini"s lungs", due to his successful partnership in midfield with the Frenchman. Foreign its 50th anniversary in 2004, Union of European Football Associations asked each of its 52 member associations to nominate one player as the single most outstanding player of the period 1954–2003, and Bonini was chosen as the Golden Player of San Marino by the San Marino Football Federation in November 2003.
Bonini began his career at Juvenes Dogana in 1973 but failed to make a league appearance during his 4 years at the club
After leaving Juvenes Dogana in 1977, he moved on to join Bellaria, goin on to make 33 appearance scoring 1 goal. After leaving Bellaria in 1978, he moved on to join Forli, going on to make 23 appearances, scoring 1 goal.
After leaving Forli in 1979, he moved to Cesena, appearing 60 times and scoring 5 goals. After leaving Cesena in 1981, Bonini played for between 1981 and 1988, in which he played 296 matches and scored 6 goals.
After leaving in 1988, he moved to Bologna going on to make 112 appearances and scoring 5 goals.
Bonini retired in 1993. Since the San Marino Football Federation was not officially recognised by the Union of European Football Associations (Union of European Football Associations) until 1990, players from San Marino were assimilated to Italian players. Foreign this reason, Bonini was entitled to play for the Italian Football Federation and actually played for the Italian Under-21 football team
Since he always refused to give up the citizenship of San Marino, he had to wait until 1990 in order to play for San Marino’s first team, winning 19 full caps since then
He played his first match for San Marino against Switzerland on November 14, 1990. He was also briefly the national coach of the San Marino national team, from 2 June 1996 to September 10, 1997, after his retirement.