Ferdinando Coppola (born 10 June 1978) is a former Italian 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

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 ...

Career

Early career

Coppola's career began at native club

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 ...

, he was used as a backup goalkeeper for

Giuseppe Taglialatela Giuseppe "Pino" Taglialatela (born 2 January 1969) is an Italian former professional football player who played as a goalkeeper. He is club chairman of Serie D club Ischia. Playing career Tagliatela joined the Ischia Isolaverde Youth Sector an ...

Luca Mondini Luca Mondini (born 25 February 1970) is a former Italian footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career Mondini started his professional career at Internazionale. After he was loaned to Serie C1 clubs, he joined Vicenza which newly promoted to ...

and Alessio Bandieri. In June 2000, he joined

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 ...

as backup to Francesco Antonioli.

Ascoli

He transferred to

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 ...

team Ascoli in the summer of 2003, making one appearance before being sent to Serie A team

Reggina Associazione Sportiva Reggina 1914, commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. They play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo and are currently playing in the Serie D league. ...

on loan, playing further two games. He returned to Ascoli in 2004, and made 28 appearances, plus two more in play-offs, helping Ascoli achieve promotion back to Serie A. During the 2005–06 season, Coppola played all of the 38 Serie A fixtures, and saw Ascoli finish twelfth place in the table.

Milan and Piacenza

Coppola was signed by

A.C. Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

in June 2006, for €200,000, as a replacement for their third choice goalkeeper

Valerio Fiori Valerio Fiori (born 27 April 1969) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and current goalkeeping coach. He is currently a goalkeeping coach for Serie A club Genoa. Career Before being the third goalkeeper at A.C ...

, who was set to retire from professional football. Coppola was to compete with

Željko Kalac Zeljko Kalac (born 16 December 1972) is an Australian soccer coach and former player who is currently the goalkeeping coach for the Iraq national football team. Standing at 2.02 m, Kalac is the tallest player to have represented the Austra ...

for this position. He played a few friendly matches with A.C. Milan, but was sent back to Serie B, to play for

Piacenza Piacenza (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Piacenza, eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with more ...

, because Fiori delayed his retirement.

Atalanta

In the summer of 2007, he was loaned to

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

in Serie A. In June 2008, Atalanta bought half of the rights from Milan for €750,000.

Siena

After Atalanta were relegated, Milan bought him back for €200,000 and loaned him to Siena. Two days later Siena sold

Gianluca Curci Gianluca Curci (; born 12 July 1985) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, most recently for Hammarby IF in the Swedish Allsvenskan. Curci has previously played for Roma, Siena, Sampdoria, Bologna, 1. FSV Mai ...

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 ...

Torino

On 30 June 2011,

Torino 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 ...

announced the signing of Coppola on a temporary basis from Milan. Before the start of the 2012–13, Coppola was sentenced to a six-month ban, later reduced to four months on appeal, for his involvement in the 2011–12 Italian football scandal. After serving the ban, during the January transfer window he re-joined Torino, this time on a permanent deal.

Back in Milan

On 19 August 2013, he was re-signed by

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Bologna

On 8 July 2014, Coppola moved 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 ...

Career statistics

References

External links

Profile
at assocalciatori.it {{DEFAULTSORT:Coppola, Ferdinando 1978 births Living people Italian men's footballers SSC Napoli players Bologna FC 1909 players AS Reggina 1914 players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players AC Milan players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players Atalanta BC players Siena FC SSD players Torino FC players Hellas Verona FC players Serie A players Serie B players Men's association football goalkeepers Footballers from Naples