Carlo Nervo (; born 29 October 1971) is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

former 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 usually played as a wide

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

on the right flank. Following his retirement, he began a career in politics.

Club career

Originally from Solagna, Nervo began his career with the G.S.R. Solagna Youth System, before moving to Bassano Virtus, where he made his professional debut in 1988 after developing further in the club's Youth System. After brief periods with

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

and

Cittadella Cittadella () is a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, northern Italy, founded in the 13th century as a military outpost of Padua. The surrounding wall has been restored and is in circumference with a diameter of around . There are fo ...

, he moved to Mantova in 1992, spending two seasons with the club, helping the club to the

Serie C2 Serie C2 was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Serie C. The league menaging t ...

title in his first season, and earning promotion to

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

. In 1994, Nervo was signed by

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 ...

, the club with which he would spend most of his career; in total, he remained at the club for 13 seasons in total, 11 of which were consecutive, making 337 league appearances for the club between

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 ...

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 ...

, and Serie C1, while scoring a total of 36 goals; he made his debut with Bologna during the 1994–95 season, and demonstrated his adeptness as a right winger due to his pace, work-rate, skill, creativity, and eye for goal, which enabled him to form several notable partnerships on the pitch with strikers such as

Igor Kolyvanov Igor Vladimirovich Kolyvanov (; born 6 March 1968) is a Russian football manager and a former player. During his playing career, he played as a striker, accumulating 90 goals scored in 333 games at the top level in the Soviet Union as well as i ...

and

Giuseppe Signori Giuseppe "Beppe" Signori (; born 17 February 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He played for several clubs in Italy throughout his career, and also had spells in Greece and Hungary with Iraklis Thess ...

. Nervo played a key role in helping Bologna win consecutive Serie C1 and Serie B titles, also gaining

promotion with the club, and he made his Serie A debut on 7 September 1996, in a 1–0 home win over

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

; he made his 100th Serie A appearance with Bologna in a 0–0 away draw against

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

on 5 March 2000. During his time with the club, he helped Bologna to qualify for the

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 ...

, after winning the

1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup finals were won by Valencia, Werder Bremen, and Bologna. All three teams advanced to the UEFA Cup. The 1998 tournament saw Spanish clubs debut in the competition and also the return of English clubs, since the controver ...

; Bologna reached the semifinals of both the

1998–99 UEFA Cup The 1998–99 UEFA Cup was won by Parma in the final against Marseille. It was their second title in the competition. It was the last edition of the old format UEFA Cup, before the Cup Winners' Cup was merged into it to include domestic cup win ...

and the

1998–99 Coppa Italia The 1998–99 Coppa Italia was the 52nd edition of the tournament, which began on August 23, 1998, and ended on May 5, 1999. Parma won the 1998–99 Coppa Italia tournament for the 2nd time in club history and first since the 1991–92 competition. ...

the following season. Following Bologna's relegation to Serie B at the conclusion of the

2004–05 Serie A The 2004–05 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 103rd season of top-tier Italian football, the 73rd in a round-robin tournament. It was expanded to contain 20 clubs, which played 38 matches against each other, ra ...

season and the expiration of his contract with the club, Nervo spent a brief stint on loan with fellow Serie B side

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 ...

during the 2005–06 season, but later returned to Bologna in January 2006, and finished his professional career with the club at the conclusion of the 2006–07 season, retiring in 2007. With 417 appearances in official competitions with Bologna, he is the club's third highest appearance holder, behind Giacomo Bulgarelli and Tazio Roversi. In February 2008, Nervo came out of retirement to play football in the lower divisions, for Virgilio, and Padania. During the 2008–09 season, he played with Rolo, officially retiring from football at the end of the season.

International career

Nervo also played for the Italy national side, making six appearances under manager

Giovanni Trapattoni Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), popularly nicknamed "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian former Association football, football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Football in Italy, Italian football ...

between 2002 and 2004. He made his international debut in a friendly match on 20 November 2002, in a 1–1 home draw against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, in Pescara.

Style of play

Nervo usually played as a right winger, and was known for his pace, work-rate,

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. As ...

skills, creativity, eye for goal, and ability to provide precise assists for teammates from crosses. Although he usually played as a midfielder, he was also capable of playing as a forward, or as a defender.

Outside of football

Politics

Following his retirement from football, Nervo pursued a career in politics; he is a member of the controversial

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

Padanian separatist party ''

Lega Nord Lega Nord (LN; ), whose complete name is (), is a right-wing politics, right-wing, federalism, federalist, populism, populist and conservatism, conservative list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy. In the run-up to the 201 ...

''. On 7 June 2009, he was elected the mayor of Solagna, in the province of Vicenza.

Business

After his political career, Nervo started a family furniture business.

Honours

; Mantova *

: 1992–93 ;

: 1994–95 *

: 1995–96 *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

References

External links

*
Biography
*
FIGC Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nervo, Carlo 1971 births Living people Italian men's footballers Italy men's international footballers Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Bologna FC 1909 players US Catanzaro 1929 players Mantova 1911 players AC Monza players AS Cittadella players Bassano Virtus 55 ST players Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Vicenza