Cosimo Marco Da Graca (born 1 May 2002) is an 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 plays as a striker for club

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

. A forward of Cape Verdean origin, Da Graca made his first steps at Calcio Sicilia and at

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, the team of his native city. In 2018, he joined

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

' youth set-up. In 2020–21, he made his debut for both

Juventus U23 Juventus Next Gen (), also known as Juve Next Gen or Juve NG, is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, which acts as the reserve team of club Juventus. They compete in , and play their home games at the Stadio La Marm ...

and Juventus first-team. Promoted permanently to their reserve team playing in

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

, he was loaned to

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

club

Amorebieta Amorebieta-Etxano, also known as Zornotza ( Spanish, ''Amorebieta-Echano''), is a town and municipality located in Biscay in the Basque Country, an Autonomous Community in northern Spain. At the time of the 2019 census, the population of the mun ...

in summer 2023. After the loan was interrupted in January 2024, he spent an entire year playing again for Juventus Next Gen. He joined Novara in January 2025 on a permanent basis.

Club career

Youth career

Da Graca began his youth career at Sicilia aged 10, before moving to

's youth sector aged 12. He stayed there until 2018, when he moved to

on loan, before making the move permanent in 2019 for €600,000.

Juventus

On 28 October 2020, Da Graca made his

debut for

, the reserve team of Juventus, in a 2–1 defeat to

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

. He scored his first goal for Juventus U23 on 7 March as a second-half substitute, scoring the game's sole goal in the 85th minute against

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and a ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the province of Grosseto and the main city of the Maremma region. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the ...

. He was first called up to the senior side on 2 December 2020, as an unused substitute in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

group stage game against

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

. Da Graca played his first game for Juventus on 27 January 2021, coming on as a substitute in a 4–0 win over

SPAL Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly referred to by the acronym SPAL (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. During the 2024–25 season the team played in Serie C, the third tier of the Italian foot ...

in the

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

. On 15 April, Juventus renewed Da Graca's contract until June 2024. Da Graca started the 2021–22 season with some muscular injuries. His debut in the season came on 24 October, coming on as substitute in the 71st minute in a 1–1 home draw against Pro Sesto; he also scored the equalizing goal in the 89th minute. On 8 December, Da Graca made his

debut in a 1–0 win against

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, coming on as substitute in the 89th minute. On 17 January 2022, Da Graca was ruled out for a month to undergo treatment after it was diagnosed that he suffered from an irregular heartbeat. Da Graca's first mach after his injury came on 23 February, in a match against Pro Patria won 1–0. On 12 May, he scored a 30th-minute decider in Juventus U23's 1–0 away win to

Renate Renate is a feminine given name. It is derived from the Latin name Renatus. It is common in German, Dutch and Norwegian. Notable people with the given name include: *Renate Aschauer-Knaup (born 1948), German singer (Amon Düül II) * Renate Blaue ...

in the third round of play-offs, allowing his team to access the further round.

Loan to Amorebieta

On 30 August 2023, Da Graca extended his contract with Juventus until 2025, and subsequently joined Spanish side

on loan for the rest of the season. After failing to break through the starting eleven of the first team, both parties agreed upon cutting short the loan deal, with Da Graca returning to Juventus on 11 January 2024.

Novara

On 24 January 2025, Da Graca signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with

club

International career

Eligible to represent

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

through his father, Da Graca has played for Italy at youth level. He went on trial for the under-15s, before playing eight games for the under-16s in 2018.

Style of play

A left-footed player, Da Graca started out as a winger, before becoming a

centre-forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than Midfielder, midfielders and Defender (association football), d ...

because of his height of and his physicality.

Personal life

Da Graca was born in

, Italy, to a father from

Praia Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde. He is of Portuguese descent.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Juventus *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Da Graca, Marco 2002 births Living people Italian people of Cape Verdean descent Italian people of Portuguese descent Cape Verdean people of Italian descent Footballers from Palermo Italian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Palermo FC players Juventus FC players Juventus Next Gen players SD Amorebieta footballers Novara FC players Serie C players Segunda División players Italy men's youth international footballers Italian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Italian expatriate sportspeople in Spain 21st-century Italian sportsmen