Matteo Mancosu (born 22 December 1984) is an Italian 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 played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. A right-footed player, although he was usually deployed in the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

as a main striker, he was also capable of playing as a winger on either flank.

Career

Atletico Elmas and Atletico Calcio

Born in

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

, Mancosu played in the youth team of the ''Scuola Calcio Johannes'' of Cagliari, and while he was not able to pass any of several trials with

, the main Sardinian

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 ...

team, he managed to break into the squad of the Atletico Elmas 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 ...

. Mancosu played 4 seasons in Serie D with Atletico Elmas, which was renamed Atletico Calcio in 2002, scoring 7 goals in 73 matches.

Nuorese

Mancosu moved down in

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football.Official ...

in November 2004, to play with Nuorese. In his first year, he contributed to the promotion of the Sardinian club scoring 14 goals in 31 matches. He also played for Nuorese in Serie D the next season, scoring 6 goals in 23 matches.

Villacidrese

Mancosu moved to another Sardinian team in 2006. He will play the next 4 seasons for Villacidrese. In his first three seasons there, in 91 matches in Serie D Mancosu scored 43 goals, 18 of whose while leading them to promotion in 2008–09. Mancosu played the fourth and final season for Villacidrese in

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

, scoring 7 goals in 22 matches.

Latina

Mancosu moved to his first team outside Sardinia only in 2010–11, at the age of 25. He played for one season for

Latina Latina or Latinas most often refers to: * Latinas, a demographic group in the United States * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America. *Latin Americans Latina and Latinas may also refer ...

in Seconda Divisione, scoring 5 goals in 20 matches.

Vigor Lamezia

Mancosu moved then to

Vigor Lamezia Vigor Lamezia is an Football in Italy, Italian association football club, based in Lamezia Terme, Calabria. Vigor Lamezia currently plays in Eccellenza, the fifth level of the Italian football league system. History The club was founded in 19 ...

in 2011–12. He played for the Calabrian side only that season, in Seconda Divisione, and he went to score 20 goals in 37 matches, a career best.

Trapani

Mancosu finally got the chance to debut in

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 ...

when he joined

Trapani Trapani ( ; ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') with 54,887 inhabitants, on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the mai ...

in the summer of 2012. Specifically selected to improve a squad that had been very close to the promotion the previous year, Mancosu lead the Sicilian side to a historic first promotion in

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 ...

scoring 15 times in 29 matches. Mancosu has been leading the forward line of Trapani also during the 2013–14

season, scoring 19 goals in the first 27 matches, a record for a rookie. He finished the season as the top-scorer in Serie B with 26 goals in 40 appearances.

Bologna

On 26 January 2015, Mancosu was acquired 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 ...

for €1.1 million in a -year contract. On 22 August 2015, 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 the opening fixture of the

2015–16 Serie A The 2015–16 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 114th season of top-tier Italian football, the 84th in a round-robin tournament, and the 6th since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B. ...

season, a 2–1 defeat against

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 ...

at the age of 30, scoring his first goal in Serie A in the same match.

Loans to Carpi

On 12 January 2016, he was loaned out by Bologna to

Carpi Carpi may refer to: Places * Carpi, Emilia-Romagna, a large town in the province of Modena, central Italy ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Carpi * Carpi (Africa), a city and former diocese of Roman Africa, now a Roman Catholic titular see People ...

. Carpi also had a buy option and an obligation to purchase his contract outright if Carpi was not relegated. He scored his first goal for the team on his club debut, on 13 January, in a 2–1 away defeat to

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 ...

in the quarter-finals of 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 ...

. At the end of season Mancosu returned to Bologna, as the conditional obligation was not achieved nor the option was activated.

Montreal Impact

On 7 July 2016, Mancosu was sent on loan once again, to Canadian side Montreal Impact in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

on a one-year loan. The club was also owned by Joey Saputo, chairman of Bologna. Mancosu made his debut for the club coming on as a substitute in a 3–1 home defeat to New York City F.C. on 17 July. On 2 March 2017, it was announced that Mancosu had signed a two-year deal with Montreal Impact.

Virtus Entella

Mancosu joined

Virtus Entella Virtus Entella, commonly referred to as Entella, is an Italian professional Association football, football club based in Chiavari, Liguria. Founded in 1914, the club currently competes in the . Entella will play in Serie B 2025/26 after winning ...

of the Italian

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 ...

on 8 January 2019.

Personal life

Mancosu has two younger brothers,

Marco Marco may refer to: People Given name * Marco (actor) (born 1977), South Korean model and actor Surname * Georg Marco (1863–1923), Romanian chess player of German origin * Jindřich Marco (1921–2000), Czechoslovak photographer and numismat ...

and

Marcello Marcello is a common masculine Italian given name. It is a variant of Marcellus (name), Marcellus. The Spanish and Portuguese version of the name is Marcelo, differing in having only one "l", while the Greek form is Markellos. Etymology The nam ...

, who are also footballers.

Honours

Individual *

top scorer: 2013–14

References

External links

* *
Profile at AIC

Profile at LegaSerieA.it
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mancosu, Matteo 1984 births Living people Footballers from Cagliari Italian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Major League Soccer players FC Trapani 1905 players USD Nuorese Calcio 1930 players SS Villacidrese Calcio players Latina Calcio 1932 players Vigor Lamezia players Bologna FC 1909 players AC Carpi players CF Montréal players Virtus Entella players Italian expatriate men's footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada 21st-century Italian sportsmen