Giovanni Morabito (born 26 January 1978 in

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria (; ), commonly and officially referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the List of cities in Italy, largest city in Calabria as well as the seat of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. As ...

) is a retired

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 ...

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 last played as a defender for

Licata Licata (, ; , whence or ''Plintis''), formerly also Alicata (), is a city and ''comune'' located on the south coast of Sicily, at the mouth of the Salso River (the ancient ''Himera''), about midway between Agrigento and Gela. It is a major se ...

Career

After beginning his youth career with Reggina, he made his professional debut in

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 ...

while on loan with

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 ...

during the 1996–97 season, making 38 appearances, and scoring 5 goals, helping the club to gain promotion to

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 ...

. During the 1997–98 season, he made his

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 ...

debut with Reggina under manager

Franco Colomba Franco Colomba (born 6 February 1955) is an Italian football coach and former player, most recently in charge of Serie B club Livorno. Playing career Colomba was born in Grosseto. A midfielder, he started his playing career in Bologna, making h ...

, making 31 appearances and scoring a goal. In 1998, he was acquired by

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

, making 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 with the club that

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

under his former Reggina manager, making 13 appearances. The following season, he returned to Reggina, where he remained for four more seasons, three of which were in Serie A, and one in Serie B, which concluded with a Serie A promotion in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. In total, he made 120 appearances for the club, scoring his only goal in a memorable match against

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 ...

on the final day of the

2000–01 Serie A The 2000–01 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 99th season of top-tier Italian football, the 69th in a round-robin tournament. It was contested by 18 teams, for the 13th consecutive season since 1988–89. Rom ...

season. After only 2 appearances with Reggina during the 2003–04 season, in January 2004, he was loaned to

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, making 17 appearances in

. After returning to his club for 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, he only made one appearance before being sold to

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 ...

, where he made 16 appearances in

. He spent the following season in

with

Cesena Cesena (; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy; and - with Forlì - is the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. Served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine M ...

, making 36 appearances and scoring 2 goals. He returned to Reggina again the following season, but failed to make a single league appearance, and in 2007 he was loaned to Crotone, where he made 9 appearances. The following season, he moved to

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Hellas Verona (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Verona, Veneto, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won ...

once again under Colomba. In January 2009 he transferred to

Prima Divisione Prima Divisione (''First Division'') was the name of the first level of the Italian Football Championship from 1921 to 1926. The competition was initially founded in opposition to the FIGC by the richest clubs of Northern Italy, which disagreed the ...

side Virtus Lanciano. In March 2010, he moved to Igea Virtus, in the Seconda Divisione. In January 2011, he moved to

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 ...

and in September he moved to

. After making only 5 appearances in 2 months, he cancelled his contract and retired at the age of 34 to begin a coaching career.

References

1978 births Living people Footballers from Reggio Calabria Italian men's footballers Hellas Verona FC players AS Reggina 1914 players Men's association football defenders FC Crotone players LR Vicenza players AC Cesena players US Catanzaro 1929 players SS Virtus Lanciano 1924 players ASD Nuova Igea Virtus players ASD Licata Calcio players 20th-century Italian sportsmen {{Italy-footy-defender-1970s-stub