On 10 June 2010 Parma exchanged the 22-year-old striker with Gabriele Paonessa of Bologna in co-ownership deal. Both players' 50% registration rights was valued €600,000. Paponi signed a 5-year contract worth €120,000 in net annually plus bonuses. The deal never a successful deal on the field as both players failed to take part in the first team, but a successful financial deal that both club had a player selling profit of €1.2 million in 2009–10 season but only would counter-weight by the amortization of the buying cost of the same amount in next 5 seasons (2010 to 2015, the contract length of both players) plus VAT. Paponi also became a financial burden of the club for his wage in 2013. Paponi only played once in 2011–12 Serie A. In June 2012, Paonessa was definitively under contract with Parma as well as Paponi to Bologna.