Emanuele Manitta (born 12 January 1977) is a retired Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Football career

Early career

A native of

Caltagirone Caltagirone (; or ; ) is an inland city and municipality () in the Metropolitan City of Catania, on the island (and region) of Sicily, Southern Italy, about southwest of Catania. It is the fifth most populous municipality of the Metropolita ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, he spent one season at youth rank of A.S. Bari before to move to Sicilian amateur club

U.S. Ragusa Unione Sportiva Dilettantistica Ragusa 2014 is an Italian association football club located in Ragusa, Sicily. It currently plays in Serie D. History U.S. Ragusa The football in Ragusa arrived before the foundation of this company, in 194 ...

, at that time at

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 ...

. He then moved to Peloro Calcio of

. In summer 1997, Peloro merged with

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

, at that time at

Messina

At Messina, he helped the club gain promotion to Serie C2 in summer 1998, and to Serie C1 in summer 2000. He won a loan contract from

U.S. Lecce Unione Sportiva Lecce () is a Football in Italy, professional Italian football club based in Lecce, Apulia. The club play in Serie A in the 2023–24 Serie A, 2023–24 season, the top level of the Italian football league system, Italian footb ...

in summer 2000, but did not play. He returned to Messina in summer 2001, this time at

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 ...

. He won another loan contract from

S.S.C. Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli (), commonly known as SSC Napoli or simply Napoli, is an Italian professional football club based in Naples, Campania that currently competes in the Serie A, the highest league of Italian football. Napoli are am ...

(Serie B) in January 2003, to replace

Marco Storari Marco Storari (born 7 January 1977) is an Italian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. After a lengthy spell in Italy's lower leagues, he arrived in Serie A aged 27. Steady performances for Messina prompted his signing by A.C. Milan i ...

, later the move became permanent. He played 41 out of 42 Serie B games that season. But Napoli faced bankrupt in summer 2004, he started his career that finding a club in every summer.

Later career

He was first for

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 ...

(Serie B), but the club almost failed to protect her place on Serie B. He then joined

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 ...

as backup of

Gianluca Pagliuca Gianluca Pagliuca (; born 18 December 1966) is an Italian football coach and former professional goalkeeper. He is regarded by pundits as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation, and one of Italy's best keepers ever. Throughout his ...

, where he just made 2 appearances. In summer 2006, he joined

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 ...

, where he made his

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 ...

debut on 21 January 2007 in a 1–1 draw against

A.S. Roma Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: ) is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its exis ...

. As a backup for

Marco Amelia Marco Amelia (; born 2 April 1982) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and current coach in charge of Serie D amateurs Nuova Sondrio. A Roma youth product, Amelia spent most of his professional club career ...

, he also played 8 Serie A games, but none in the

2006–07 UEFA Cup The 2006–07 UEFA Cup was the 36th edition of the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup, Europe's second-tier club association football, football tournament. On 16 May 2007, at Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Sevilla FC, Sevilla won their second consecu ...

. In summer 2007, he moved back to

, ahead Gabriele Paoletti as first choice, where he played 30 Serie B games. Following the disbandment of the Sicilian club, he was released for free in July 2008, and later signed by

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

on 3 October 2008 as an emergency replacement for Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos.

Honours

Messina *

: 1997–98 *

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 ...

: 1999–2000

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Manitta, Emanuele 1977 births Living people People from Caltagirone Italian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers SSC Bari players ACR Messina players US Lecce players SSC Napoli players Bologna FC 1909 players US Livorno 1915 players Siena FC SSD players US Catanzaro 1929 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie D players Footballers from Sicily Sportspeople from the Metropolitan City of Catania