Matteo was born on the 14th of February (yep, Valentine !) of 1981
at Rimini. It's a beautiful city on the coast of Italy.
He joined the local soccerteam when he was 16, that was in
the season of 1997-1998. Rimini was in the Serie C2 at that time and in that season he didn't make any appearances.
But
the next season, 1998-1999 he made 28 appearances and 2 goals !
At the end of that season, he caught the eye of one
of the biggest clubs in Italy, Juventus.
Luciano Moggi contacted Rimini, to buy Matteo, but Matteo said "no".
He didn't
want to move to Turin, cause he thought he wouldn't get the chance to play a lot among all those big stars. And he also wanted
to graduate high school first, to get a diploma.
He played another season with Rimini in the season 1999-2000. This
time he made 34 appearances and 10 goals.
He also got his high school diploma in accountancy.
Now he could join
Juventus. He was on the bench most of the time, he only got to start in 1 game in the Serie A, against Napoli (which Juve
won with 3-0 by the way).
He didn't play that much in the 2000-2001 season, but he did get some call-ups for the Italy
under20 and under21 team !
After the season ended, he moved to Bologna on loan. This way, he'd get more play-time.
And he succeeded. He was in the starting-team of Bologna and they could hardly miss him on the midfield. He became one
of the best players in the team ! Bologna played an excellent season and for a long time it looked like they'd get into the
uefa-cup. Unfortunately they got some bad results in their last few games, so they ended on the 7th spot... They're
still going to the Intertoto-cup, so that's great !
After his adventure at Bologna, he went back to Juve. They also bought his little brother,
Marco.
Matteo played there all summer long and he did great. He even won the Supercoppa against
Parma !
One day before the transfer market closed, Juve gave Matteo (+ a lot of money) to Parma.
In exchange they got Marco Di Vaio...
Matteo's only on loan at Parma, for 2 years.
Again, one day before the transfer market closed, they loaned him to Brescia. So now he's there.
He's almost always in the team ! Good luck to you, Matteo !
