Felice Natalino (born 24 March 1992) is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender.

Club career

Natalino arrived

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Since 1 ...

's youth system in August 2008 from

Crotone Crotone (; ; or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Calabria, Italy. Founded as the Achaean colony of Kroton ( or ; ), it became a great Greek city, home of the renowned mathematician-philosopher Pythagoras amongst other famous citizens, and one ...

via

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, ''il Grifone'' having signed him from Crotone just weeks earlier, for a cost of 628,293 €. From the 2009–10 season he was co-contracted by the two clubs, as Genoa sold half of the registration rights for €75,000. Before joining Crotone, he had also played a season for Virtus Sambiase, with the club eligible to receive 18,000 € from Inter after Natalino made his Serie A début. Natalino was only included in the first team during the

2010–11 Serie A The 2010–11 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 109th season of top-tier Italian football, the 79th in a round-robin tournament, and the 1st since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B ...

season due to an injury crisis. Natalino then made his competitive début for the first team on 28 November 2010, aged 18 years and 8 months, coming on for

Davide Santon Davide Santon (; born 2 January 1991) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a left wing-back. A former Inter Milan youth product, Santon began his professional club career with Inter in 2008, and remained with the club unt ...

at half-time during a home league match against

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

, ended in a 5–2 win for Inter. Natalino was then inserted in the starting line-up by head coach

Rafael Benítez Rafael Benítez Maudes (born 16 April 1960) is a Spanish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player. He was most recently the manager of La Liga club RC Celta de Vigo, Celta Vigo. Beníte ...

in the next match against

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, that ended in a 3–1 defeat for the ''Nerazzurri''. On 7 December, Natalino made his

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

début against

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

, coming on in the second half for the captain

Javier Zanetti Javier Adelmar Zanetti (, ; born 10 August 1973) is an Argentine former professional footballer. Regarded as one of the greatest right-backs of all time, Zanetti is well known for having dedicated almost his entire career at Inter Milan, having ...

who had suffered a knock. The game ended in a 3–0 defeat to Bremen. Natalino went on loan during the 2011–12 season, as Inter youths often left the under-20 team a year earlier for senior football. However, Natalino only played once. In June 2012 Genoa transferred the remaining 50% registration rights to Inter for free. In February 2013, Natalino underwent emergency surgery after suffering a heart attack. He had previously been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat. In October of that year, he confirmed his retirement from football, having chosen not to risk putting undue strain on his heart by returning to the life of a professional sportsman.

International career

Natalino was a member of the Italy U-16 national team in 2007–08 season. He also played for U17, U18 and U19 team. However, after he turned to play senior football he did not receive any call-up. Natalino was a member of

2009 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship qualification 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Hindu–Arabic digit Circa 300 BC, as part of the Brahmi numerals, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bot ...

which he played twice.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Natalino, Felice Italian men's footballers Inter Milan players Hellas Verona FC players FC Crotone players Serie A players Serie B players Italy men's youth international footballers Men's association football defenders People from Lamezia Terme 1992 births Living people Footballers from the Province of Catanzaro 21st-century Italian sportsmen