Adam Masina (; born 2 January 1994) is a Moroccan professional

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 lea ...

who plays as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for Italian club

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, and the Morocco national team. Coming through

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

youth academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

, Masina made his senior appearance with the club in 2012, and transferred to Watford in 2018. He was also loaned to Giacomense twice. Masina was born in Morocco but moved to Italy at a young age. He initially represented Italy at an international level of under-21, before switching to play for the Morocco national team in 2021.

Club career

Masina was born in

Khouribga Khouribga (Moroccan , ) is the capital of Khouribga Province in the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region, Morocco. With a population of 342,125 (2024 census), Khouribga owes its growth to the phosphate deposits nearby. Geography Located at 107 km ...

, Morocco, but lost his mother as just an infant. He successively moved to Italy together with his brother and father, settling down in

Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...

, and was later assigned to a number of foster families due to his father's problems with alcoholism. He was eventually adopted by one of them, from which he took his last name. After a successful loan in Giacomense, Masina returned to Bologna in 2013 and made his senior debut for the ''Rossoblu'' in a 2–1 away victory over Latina on 12 October 2014. He helped the club obtain

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

promotion, later debuting in the top division, and scoring his first goal in Serie A in an injury time victory at Carpi. On 2 July 2018, Masina signed for English club

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

on a five-year contract for an undisclosed fee. On 18 July 2022, Masina signed a three-year contract with Italian club

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

. On 1 February 2024, he moved on loan to

, with an option to buy. On 14 June 2024, Torino announced that they had activated their option to buy, Masina signing a two-year contract.

International career

In November 2015,

Luigi Di Biagio Luigi Di Biagio (; born 3 June 1971) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is currently managing Saudi Arabia U23. A former midfielder, Di Biagio last played for Ascoli in 2007, and previously also played for seve ...

called Masina to represent Italy U21 team after obtaining FIFA transfer. He debuted with the Italy U21 side on 17 November 2015, in a Euro 2017 qualification match against

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. In March 2021, Masina was called up to represent

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

in African Cup of Nations qualifier matches against

Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...

and

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

, debuting on 26 March 2021 against the former.

Style of play

Masina is known in particular for his technique, physicality and energy as a

Career statistics

Honours

Watford *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

runner-up: 2018–19 Individual * Serie B Footballer of the Year: 2015 *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's Football in England, En ...

: 2021 * EFL Championship Team of the Season:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Masina, Adam Living people 1994 births Sportspeople from Khouribga Moroccan men's footballers 21st-century Moroccan sportsmen Italian men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Italy men's under-21 international footballers Morocco men's international footballers Moroccan emigrants to Italy Serie A players Serie B players Premier League players English Football League players AC Giacomense players Bologna FC 1909 players Watford F.C. players Udinese Calcio players Torino FC players Moroccan expatriate men's footballers Italian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in England Italian expatriate sportspeople in England 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players Adoptees 21st-century Italian sportsmen