Andrea Russotto (born 25 May 1988) 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 as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

club Siracusa.

Club career

Hailed as one of the most promising Italian youngsters, he started his career as part of the

S.S. Lazio (; ; ''Lazio Sport Club'') is an Italian professional sports club based in Rome, most known for its football activity. The society, founded in 1900, plays in the Serie A and have spent most of their history in the top tier of Italian footba ...

youth system.

Bellinzona and loans

In 2004, Russotto, already a regular in the national youth teams, was approached by football agency GEA World who wanted to represent the rising star. Russotto refused the pressure from GEA and, in order to get away from their continuing pressure, he moved to Switzerland, where he signed for

AC Bellinzona AC Bellinzona is a Swiss football club based in Bellinzona. It was founded in 1904, and won the Swiss Super League in 1948. After being folded in 2013 declaring bankruptcy, the team played the Ticino Group of 2.Liga, the sixth tier of the Sw ...

, a team from the Italian part of Switzerland that were playing in

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the wi ...

at the time. In 2005, newly promoted Serie A club

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

acquired his services on loan but made him play with the ''Primavera'' side all season, where he formed a valid striking partnership with Italian youth international Robert Acquafresca. Russotto did later make his debut in Serie A that season, at the age of 17, and completed the season with four first team appearances. Famed magazine World Soccer even inserted Russotto on the list of the top 50 young players in the world, as one of only two Italians (the other being

Lorenzo De Silvestri Lorenzo De Silvestri (; born 23 May 1988) is an Italian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Defender (association football), defender for Serie A club Bologna FC 1909, Bologna. He is an offensive full-back (association f ...

). The following season Treviso extended the loan (although they had been relegated to Serie B) and Russotto finally started to show signs of a potential explosion. He made his Italy U21 debut at the age of 18 and racked up 32 appearances and 4 goals that season. Treviso extended his loan for one more year in 2007–08 but even though he played 31 times and scoring 1 goal, Russotto failed to perform at a high level like the previous season and was used mainly as a sub. In the summer of 2008, he finally returned to Bellinzona, and then left out again on loan, this time to join

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

in the Serie A, with an option for the Southern Italian side to make the move permanent. However the young ''trequartista'' was used sparingly by head coach

Edy Reja Edoardo Reja (born 10 October 1945) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Slovenian club Gorica. After a career as a midfielder spent mostly with SPAL and Palermo, he began working a ...

and his end-of-season substitute

Roberto Donadoni Roberto Donadoni (; born 9 September 1963) is an Italian football manager and former midfielder. A skilful and versatile winger, Donadoni was capable of playing on either flank, or in the centre. He began his career with Atalanta, and late ...

, and Napoli then decided not to exercise the buy-out clause and therefore Russotto was sent back to Switzerland again. He consequently returned in Switzerland, where he spent the first half of the season playing with AC Bellinzona's first team in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

. In January 2010, he was sent on loan (with a permanent move option) to Serie B club

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 ...

Livorno

In summer 2011 Russotto was signed by Serie B club

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

in a definitive deal. On 31 January 2012, he was signed by

Carrarese Calcio Carrarese Calcio 1908, commonly referred to as Carrarese, is an Italian football club based in Carrara, Tuscany. The team plays in Serie B, second tier of Italian football, after promotion from Serie C in 2023–24. History The club was found ...

Serie C

In October 2012 Russotto was signed by

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into ...

club

Catanzaro Catanzaro (; or ; ), also known as the "City of the two Seas" (), is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its province and the second most populated comune of the region, behind Reggio Calabr ...

as a free agent. In January 2013 Serie A club

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, ...

signed half of the registration rights of Russotto (by signing Russotto outright and sold back 50% registration rights of Russotto to Catanzaro for a peppercorn fee of €500.). In June 2014 Parma gave up the 50% registration rights for free. On 16 July 2015, Russotto was sold to Serie B club

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is an Italian professional football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recently in 2011. The current ...

. He played twice for the team in

2015–16 Coppa Italia The 2015–16 Coppa Italia, also known as TIM Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 69th edition of the national domestic tournament. It began on 2 August 2015 and ended with the final match on 21 May 2016. Juventus successfully defended their tit ...

. On 31 August 2015, Russotto and Caetano were signed by

Lega Pro The Lega Italiano Calcio Professionistico (Italian for Professional Football Italian League), commonly known as Lega Pro (Pro League), is the governing body that runs the third tier of professional football competitions in Italy, the Serie C. I ...

club

Calcio Catania Catania Football Club, commonly known as Catania, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in the city of Catania, Sicily, that plays in Serie C. Originally founded in 1908 as ''Associazione Sportiva pro Educazione Fisica'', the clu ...

in definitive deals, with

Alberto Frison Alberto Frison (born 22 January 1988) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Treviso Born in Mirano, Veneto. Frison started his professional career at Veneto side Treviso. He played for Treviso's yo ...

moved to opposite direction in a definitive deal. On 19 July 2019, he signed with Cavese. On 14 January 2021, he returned to

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

on a 1.5-year contract. On 9 April 2022, he was released together with all of his Catania teammates following the club's exclusion from Italian football due to its inability to overcome a number of financial issues. In August 2022, Russotto re-signed for refounded

club

International career

Russotto made his U21 team debut against Luxembourg U21, 12 December 2006, replacing Valerio Virga at half-time and notching an assist. He played once for the U23 team in a friendly match. He was then placed on reserve for the 2008 Olympics squad and was later called up to replace the injured

Claudio Marchisio Claudio Marchisio (; born 19 January 1986) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. A product of the Juventus F.C. Youth Sector, Juventus youth system, he spent a large portion of his career ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Russotto, Andrea Italian men's footballers Italian expatriate men's footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland AC Bellinzona players Treviso FBC 1993 players SSC Napoli players FC Crotone players US Livorno 1915 players Carrarese Calcio 1908 players US Catanzaro 1929 players Catania FC players US Sambenedettese players Cavese 1919 players Swiss Challenge League players Swiss Super League players Serie C players Serie B players Serie A players Serie D players Men's association football forwards Footballers from Rome Italy men's youth international footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Italy 1988 births Living people 21st-century Italian sportsmen