Fabio Coltorti (born 3 December 1980) is a Swiss former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Club career

Coltorti was born in

Kriens Kriens is a city and a municipality in the district of Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. The municipality lies at the foot of the mountain Pilatus, and is a western suburb of Lucerne. History In the oldest documents of the Benedic ...

. During his career in his country he played with

SC Kriens SC Kriens is a football club based in Kriens, Switzerland, who currently play in the Swiss Challenge League. They currently play at the Stadion Kleinfeld and form a local rivalry with FC Lucerne. SC Kriens women's team plays in the Nationallig ...

, FC Schaffhausen,

FC Thun Fussballclub Thun 1898 is a Swiss football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of the Swiss football league system, following relegation from the Swiss Super League in the ...

and Grasshopper Club Zürich, being first choice for the latter three sides. On 30 August 2007, Coltorti penned a four-year contract with Spanish club

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league syst ...

, for

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1 million. During his first season with the

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

ns he was mainly restricted to

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

matches, which also happened in

the following ''The Following'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Kevin Williamson, and jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television. The first season follows former FBI agent Ryan Hardy ( Kevin Bacon) ...

; his

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

debut came on 22 December 2007, in a 1–4 away loss against

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA E ...

. From mid-December 2009 to February 2010, Coltorti had his longest league run in Racing's goal, benefitting from starter Toño's injury. In the first eight matches the team only lost once, at

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, ...

(2–0), conceding just seven goals. He would finish the campaign with 23 league appearances, as they barely avoided relegation after finishing in 16th position. Toño returned to full fitness for

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, playing 37 of 38 league games. In mid-June 2011, Coltorti returned to his country and signed a one-year deal with

FC Lausanne-Sport FC Lausanne–Sport (also referred to as LS) is a Swiss football club based in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud. Founded in 1896, Lausanne Sport played in the Swiss Super League in their most recent 2021-22 season, the highest tier of football i ...

. During a league game against BSC Young Boys in early April of the following year he injured his

little finger The little finger, or pinkie, also known as the baby finger, fifth digit, or pinky finger, is the most ulnar and smallest digit of the human hand, and next to the ring finger. Etymology The word "pinkie" is derived from the Dutch word ''p ...

in the final minutes but, rather than leaving the pitch as his team had already used all three substitutes, he relocated his finger back into place and continued playing until the end of the 3–1 away win. In the summer of 2012, Coltorti joined German club

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red Bul ...

, helping it promote from the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord ( en, Regional League North) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regional ...

to the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

in just two years. In late July 2014 he suffered a serious knee injury, going on to be sidelined for several months. On 24 April of the following year he became the first goalkeeper to score a winner from open play in any of the two major levels of German football, netting in the 90th minute for a 2–1 home victory over SV Darmstadt 98. Coltorti's maiden and only appearance in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

took place on 1 April 2017, as the 36-year-old was in goal during the 4–0 home win against Darmstadt. He announced his retirement in August 2018, with a

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

due to be held in his honour the following year.

International career

Coltorti was called up to the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

despite having only one

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for the Switzerland national team, won in a friendly with

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

on 1 March 2006. He also appeared twice for the under-21 side.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coltorti, Fabio 1980 births Living people Swiss men's footballers Association football goalkeepers Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players SC Kriens players FC Schaffhausen players FC Thun players Grasshopper Club Zürich players FC Lausanne-Sport players La Liga players Racing de Santander players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players RB Leipzig players Switzerland under-21 international footballers Switzerland international footballers 2006 FIFA World Cup players Swiss expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Germany Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Spain Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany People from Lucerne-Land District Sportspeople from the canton of Lucerne