Andrea Mantovani (born 22 June 1984) is an Italian

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 in the defender position.

Club career

Torino

Mantovani started his career at

Torino Calcio Torino Football Club (), colloquially referred to as Toro, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont that currently plays in the Serie A, the highest football league of Italy. Founded in 1906 as ''Foot-Ball Club Torin ...

. He was a member of the Allievi Nazionali Under-17 team in the 2000–01 season. In the 2002–03 season, he occasionally received first-team call-up and made his debut on 19 January 2003 against

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

, where he replaced Gianluca Comotto at half-time. The match ended in a 0–0 draw. After Torino was relegated in 2003, he was loaned to Serie B side

Triestina Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918, commonly referred to US Triestina or just Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, in the northern Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Originally established in 1918, Triestina was one of the fo ...

. In the 2004–05 season, Mantovani returned to

Turin 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 played as one of the regular starters; he was awarded the no.4 shirt. The team won the promotion playoffs but then went bankrupt.

FIGC The Italian Football Federation (, ; FIGC ), known colloquially as (), is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It manages and coordinates the Italian football l ...

allowed a new successor team to be admitted in

2005–06 Serie B The 2005–06 Serie B is the 74th season since its establishment in 1929. It is the second highest football league in Italy. Teams Cremonese, Rimini, Mantova and Avellino had been promoted from Serie C, while Bologna, Brescia and Atalanta h ...

, but the players were also allowed to leave on a free transfer.

Chievo

In August 2005, he was signed by

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 ...

side

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona. History The name came from t ...

along with teammate Giovanni Marchese and, on 30 August, sold to Torino's rival

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

in co-ownership for a nominal fee of €1,000. He was immediately loaned back to Chievo and played 4 league matches. Partially due to the

2006 Italian football scandal ''Calciopoli'' () was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A, and to a lesser extent, Serie B. The scandal centered on the manipulation of referee appointments to favor certain clubs during the 2004-0 ...

terminated all ongoing co-ownership deals in June 2006, and Mantovani was sold back to Chievo for about €301,000. He played 3 out of 4 European matches of Chievo, which exited in both the

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 ...

3rd qualifying round and

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

first round. Mantovani played 15 league starts in the 2006–07 season. Chievo slipped from 4th (post-trail) or 7th (pre-trail) in 2005–06 to 18th that season, and Mantovani followed the team relegated to Serie B. At Serie B, Mantovani became an absolute starter, started 36 out of 42 matches, missed round 16 and round 22 due to suspension, 1 match as a substitute and rested in the last round (round 42). In June 2008, he signed a new 4-year contract with the club. After returning to Serie A, he continued to play as a regular and helped the team survive the relegation battle. In the 2009–10 season, he played as a left-back or one of the 3 central defenders in the 352 formation and helped the team remain in Serie A. He was either ahead of

Bojan Jokić Bojan Jokić (born 17 May 1986) is a Slovenian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back or left-back. Jokić amassed 100 caps with the Slovenia national team between 2006 and 2019. Club career Jokić made his senior debut in ...

as left back or partnered with Jokić on the left flank: Jokić as wingback and Mantovani as left central defender.

Palermo

On 6 July 2011, after weeks of speculation surrounding his future, Mantovani agreed on a four-year deal with Palermo with a €3.5 million transfer fee, thus re-joining his former Chievo head coach

Stefano Pioli Stefano Pioli (born 20 October 1965) is an Italian football manager and former player who played as a defender. He is currently manager of Serie A club ACF Fiorentina. Pioli has managed several clubs in Serie A, including Bologna, Lazio, Int ...

to Sicily. He debuted with the ''rosanero'' on 28 July against

Thun Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. He spent the 2013–14 season on loan to

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 ...

. He was subsequently released on mutual consent on 11 September 2014.

Perugia

He was signed by

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

in 2015.

Vicenza

On 27 July 2015 he was signed by

Vicenza Calcio L.R. Vicenza S.p.A. (acronym for ''Lanerossi Vicenza''), better known as Vicenza or Lanerossi, is an Italian football club based in the city of Vicenza. It plays in Serie C, the third division of the Italian football league. Founded on 9 March ...

Novara

On 30 January 2016 Mantovani was signed by

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

, with Francesco Signori moved to opposite direction.

International career

He was a part of the Italy national under-19 team which won the 2003 European Under-19 Championship, and played 16 games for the Italy national under-19 team. He also played at 2001 UEFA European Under-16 Football Championship,

2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 15th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. In December 2005, Portugal was selected to host the finals of the competition, which took place from 23 May–4 June 2006. The tournament was w ...

and

2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2007 were held from 10 to 23 June 2007. It was the 16th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. Summary For the first time, a host nation was chosen ahead of the competition – the Netherlands, w ...

Honours

Club

;Chievo *

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

: 2007–08 ;Torino *

Runner-up: 2004–05

International

;Italy U-19 * European Under-19 Championship: 2003 ;Italy U-20 *

Under-20 Four Nations Tournament Under-20 Four Nations Tournament (; ) was an annual under-20 football tournament, contested by the four Alps, Alpine nations: Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, from the 2003–04 edition until the 2009–10 edition. In 2011, Poland replaced ...

: 2006

References

External links

National team official statistics

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mantovani, Andrea 1984 births Living people Italian men's footballers Italy men's youth international footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Serie A players Serie B players Torino FC players US Triestina Calcio 1918 players AC ChievoVerona players Palermo FC players Bologna FC 1909 players LR Vicenza players Novara FC players Men's association football defenders Footballers from Turin 21st-century Italian sportsmen