Manuel Pasqual

Manuel Pasqual (born March 13, 1982 in San Donà di Piave, Province of Venice) is a Association football for ACF Fiorentina of Serie A and the Italy national football team. He is a left-back, who is well known for assisting his teammates from his accurate crosses. He is also a dead ball specialist and often takes free-kicks as well as corners for the Viola.

After a couple of seasons playing for lowly-placed Serie D teams such as Derthona and Pordenone C.S.S.D., Pasqual joined Lega Pro Prima Divisione's A.C. Arezzo in January 2002, having previously played for Ternana F.B.C. 1993, at that point also a team in Serie C1. Pasqual became a key player at Arezzo, and one of the main catalysts for promotion into Serie B. Pasqual played one more remarkable season for Arezzo, before joining Fiorentina in 2005, the club having first gained 50% ownership of the player before making a full bid for his services in Summer 2006.

He is currently a regular for the viola, and his performances earned him a national team call up by former Italy coach Marcello Lippi, who capped him for a friendly match against Germany national football team, played at his club's home stadium in Florence, the Stadio Artemio Franchi, on March 1, 2006. Italy sensationally won the match by 4 goals to 1, but Pasqual only entered the game in the last few minutes. He has also attracted the attention of Italy's new coach, Roberto Donadoni, who called him up for Italy's UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying matches against Lithuania national football team and France national football team in September and matches against Ukraine national football team and Georgia national football team in October. Tottenham Hotspur were rumoured to be interested in him, but nothing came of this.