Andrea Raggi (; born 24 June 1984) is an Italian retired 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 played as a defender. He was a versatile player, being capable of playing both as a

centre 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 ...

and as a

right 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 ...

Club career

Raggi started his footballing career with

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...

, where he spent a total of four seasons with the first team.

Palermo

On 28 May 2008, Empoli announced his sale to

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

for €7 million on a four-year contract. His failure to break into the first team led Palermo to send Raggi out on loan to a number of teams. In January 2009 he joined

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa, Liguria. Sampdoria was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the ...

, then moving again to spend the whole of the 2009–10 season with

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 ...

Bari loan

In July 2010, he was loaned out for a third consecutive time, joining

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

. He was out-favoured by

Giampiero Ventura Gian Piero Ventura (; born 14 January 1948) is an Italian football manager. His playing career as a midfielder was spent in the lower leagues, having not made the grade at Sampdoria, where he began his coaching career with the youth team in 197 ...

in mid-season, who originally expected Raggi to play as a centre-back. Instead, Raggi was the starting right-back as

Andrea Masiello Andrea Masiello (born 5 February 1986) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Südtirol. He is perhaps best known for match-fixing in the Derby of Puglia, whilst playing for Bari, scoring an own goal to guara ...

, originally a right-back, remained as a temporary centre-back which Masiello already played since January 2010. He also played as a left-back to replace Alessandro Parisi against

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

on 12 December. After the closure of the winter transfer window, Parisi and Masiello re-took the full-backs position, after the signing of centre-back

Kamil Glik Kamil Jacek Glik (Polish pronunciation: ; born 3 February 1988) is a Polish professional association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for Ekstraklasa club KS Cracovia, Cracovia. The previous clubs Glik played for include Piast Gl ...

. Raggi blamed Ventura for playing so few games. The following August, he permanently moved to

, for €200,000.

Monaco

In July 2012, Raggi moved to

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, and later signed a three-year contract with the team. On 19 April 2017, after defeating

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

6–3 on aggregate, AS Monaco reached the semi–finals of the

2016–17 UEFA Champions League The 2016–17 UEFA Champions League was the 62nd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 25th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pla ...

. Later that year, Raggi won the

2016–17 Ligue 1 The 2016–17 Ligue 1 season was the 79th season since its establishment. Paris Saint-Germain were the defending champions. The fixtures were announced on 1 June 2016. The season began on 12 August 2016 and ended on 20 May 2017. On 17 May 2017, ...

title with the club. In September 2017, he signed a two-year contract extension on a €2 million annual salary, which would keep him at the club until June 2019, with AS Monaco confirming Raggi's departure on 28 June 2019

International career

On 24 March 2007, Raggi made his International debut for the Italy U-21 side against the

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is the national under-21 association football team of England, under the control of the Football Association. It is considered to be the feeder team ...

team in a 3–3 draw at the new

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

Career statistics

Honours

Empoli *

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 ...

: 2004–05 Monaco *

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

: 2016–17 *

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Individual * Ligue 2 Team of the Season:

References

External links

Profile at Football.it
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raggi, Andrea 1984 births Living people Footballers from La Spezia Italian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Italy men's under-21 international footballers Empoli FC players Palermo FC players UC Sampdoria players Bologna FC 1909 players SSC Bari players AS Monaco FC players Serie A players Serie B players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Italian expatriate men's footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Expatriate men's footballers in Monaco 21st-century Italian sportsmen