Matteo Ferrari

Matteo Ferrari (born December 5, 1979 in Aflou, Algeria) is an Italy football (soccer) player who currently plays for A.S. Roma. Matteo was born in Algeria, but from an Italian father and a Guinean mother. He grew up in Ferrara and has a brother who also used to be a football player.

Club

Matteo started his career at Spal 1907, and he can play as left-back or centreback.
Internazionale Milano F.C] brought him to their youth system, later loaning him to Genoa C.F.C], U.S. Lecce and A.S. Bari. He went back to Inter, making 27 appearances, but failed to stay, this time loaned to Parma A.C]. A permanent transfer was made because of his good performance. On summer of 2004, he joined A.S. Roma for an undisclosed fee and Damiano Ferronetti going to opposite direction. He failed to give the performances he had delivered in Parma, forcing the club to loan him to UEFA Cup competitor Everton F.C].

It took a few games for him to get accustomed to the Premiership, but Ferrari showed plenty of quality when he finally got going for Everton. Unfortunately that was brought to an end in the 1-0 win over Arsenal, when he sustained nerve damage to his hamstring.

He returned to the Everton side for the FA Cup 4th Round replay defeat against Chelsea.

Rumours suggested at one point Matteo Ferrari wanted to return to Roma, but in April 2006 David Moyes declared that all the signs pointed towards Matteo wanting to stay on and sign for Everton. However he came back to Roma at the beginning of the AS Roma 2006-07 and was the first change after Philippe Mexès and Cristian Chivu playing an amount of 36 matches, helping Roma in reaching the Serie A 2006-07 and winning the Coppa Italia 2006-07.

National team

Algerian born, with an Italian father and a Guinean mother, he choose to play on the Italy national football team. He had played for U15, U16, U17, U20 teams. Selected since 1999, he won the 2000 European Under-21 Football Championship with Italy national under-21 football team.

Italy Olympic Team

He played for his country twice at the Olympics, In Football at the 2000 Summer Olympics and in Football at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

In Football at the 2000 Summer Olympics, he only played the quarterfinals match losing to Spain. In Football at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he is one of the three over age players allowed. He played all the matches and Italy lost the semi-finals match against Argentina national football team (eventual champion of 2004 Olympics football), but Italy won the Bronze Medal match against Iraq national football team.

Italy A

His first A team call-up is against Serbia and Montenegro national football team, but he did not play. In the same year, he made his A team debut against Turkey national football team on 20 November 2002. Not a call-up to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, his first non-friendly appearance was the last 2004 European Football Championship qualifying match against Azerbaijan national football team, replacing Alessandro Nesta for the last 14 minutes.

He didn't play any match in the 2004 European Football Championship final round.

He played for 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches in 2004. Since Marcello Lippi became the new coach of national team, he never played for Italy A.

Trivia

He has gained notoriety for his high profile relationship with the Venezuelan beauty queen Aída Yéspica.