Roman Marcello Celentano (born September 14, 2000) is an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who plays 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 ...

for

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 ...

club

FC Cincinnati Football Club Cincinnati is an American professional soccer club based in Cincinnati. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team was first announced on August 12, 2015 as a United Soccer Leag ...

Early life

Roman Celentano was born on September 14, 2000, to Marcello and Manuela Celentano. He is from

Naperville, Illinois Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a southwestern suburb of Chicago located west of the city on the DuPage River. As of the 2020 United State ...

, where he attended

Neuqua Valley High School Neuqua Valley High School (NVHS) is a public four-year high school located near the corner of Illinois Route 59 and 95th Street in Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Neuqua Valley is the counterpa ...

. He has two siblings, named Julian and Remi.

Club career

Youth and college

Celentano enrolled at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

in 2019 and joined the

Indiana Hoosiers men's soccer The Indiana Hoosiers men's soccer team represents Indiana University Bloomington. The team is a member of the Big Ten Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Indiana is considered one of the most successful collegiate socce ...

team. He played for the Hoosiers for three seasons, the first two of which they were

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

regular season champions and tournament champions. Celentano was twice named Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year, was twice named to the Big Ten All-Tournament Team, and was recognized as the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Tournament in 2020.

Professional

Celentano decided to forgo his senior year of college at Indiana University to sign a

Generation Adidas Generation Adidas is a joint venture between Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer aimed at raising the level of young professional soccer talent in the United States. The program, sponsored by Adidas, offers professional-ready players in the U.S ...

contract with

, making him eligible for the 2022 MLS SuperDraft. Projected as a Top 10 draft pick, Celentano was drafted second overall by

in the draft, becoming the highest drafted goalkeeper in the SuperDraft since Andre Blake in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

. As a Generation adidas player, he signed with FC Cincinnati the same day on January 11, 2022. Celentano went on loan for the early part of the 2022 season with Cincinnati's reserve team,

FC Cincinnati 2 FC Cincinnati 2 is an American professional soccer team based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is the reserve team of FC Cincinnati and participates in MLS Next Pro. History On December 6, 2021, FC Cincinnati were named as one of 21 cl ...

MLS Next Pro MLS Next Pro (MLSNP) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada that is affiliated with Major League Soccer (MLS). It launched in 2022 with 21 teams and now comprises 27 reserve sides of MLS clu ...

, where he made his professional debut on March 27, 2022, in a 0–2 loss to Philadelphia Union II. Celentano made his first team debut for Cincinnati on April 19, 2022, in a U.S. Open Cup match against the

Pittsburgh Riverhounds Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC is an American professional soccer team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1998 and beginning play in 1999, the club plays in the Eastern Conference of the USL Championship, the second tier of the American ...

. A few days later, on April 24, 2022, Celentano made his MLS debut, starting and playing the full match in a 1–2 loss to

Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. It was establi ...

. Celentano bagged his first clean sheet in a victory against

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matc ...

on May 4, 2022, and then followed that up with a second consecutive clean sheet against

Minnesota United FC Minnesota United Football Club, often shortened to MNUFC, is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the W ...

. That earned the rookie a spot in the MLS team of the week for Week 10 of the

2022 Major League Soccer season The 2022 Major League Soccer season was the 27th season of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. The league had 28 clubs following the addition of Charlotte FC as an expansion team. The ...

International career

In January 2023, Celentano received his first call-up to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

ahead of friendlies against

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Career statistics

Club

Honors

FC Cincinnati *

Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 199 ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Individual * Big Ten Conference Goalkeeper of the Year:

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

* NCAA Men's Division I Tournament Defensive MOP Award:

* MLS Save of the Year:

References

External links

Roman Celentano
at

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Celentano, Roman 2000 births Living people Men's association football goalkeepers FC Cincinnati draft picks FC Cincinnati players FC Cincinnati 2 players Indiana Hoosiers men's soccer players Major League Soccer players MLS Next Pro players Soccer players from Naperville, Illinois American men's soccer players 21st-century American sportsmen