Samuele "Sam" Dalla Bona (born 6 February 1981) 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 ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

Chelsea

By the time he was 17 years old, he was captain of the under 18 national side, and was signed by

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament const ...

in October 1998. Dalla Bona's move to London saw the

Italian Football Federation The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. I ...

amend the legislation regarding the sale of their young players. The young midfielder was brought into the youth and reserve team squads at Chelsea first, gaining a reputation for prolific goalscoring with 16 reserve team goals, winning the club golden boot in 1998–99. In the same season, he was voted Chelsea's young player of the year. He made his senior team debut for the club against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

in the Champions League a year later in November 1999. The following season, 2000-01, Dalla Bona got an extended run in the side, making 32 appearances in that season and scoring 2 goals. He was boosted further by the departure of older midfielders

Dennis Wise Dennis Frank Wise (born 16 December 1966) is an English former professional football player and manager who played as a central midfielder. He is the president of Serie B side Como 1907. He is best known for having spent the majority of his ...

and

Gustavo Poyet Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez (; born 15 November 1967) is a Uruguayan professional football manager and former footballer. He is currently the head coach of the Greece national football team. Poyet played as a midfielder and began his caree ...

in 2001 and some impressive performances. In his final season at Chelsea, 2001-02, he contributed 4 more goals in the Premier League, including an injury time winner against

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professio ...

and the third in a 4-0 thrashing of

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

. He also played during some of the matches in Chelsea's 2001–02

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

run; the team were eventual runners-up to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, though Dalla Bona did not play in the final. However, Dalla Bona turned down a contract extension, citing his desire to return to Italy, and was placed on the transfer list. Consequently, Dalla Bona fell out of favour and was forced to train with the reserves by Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri.

A.C. Milan

Dalla Bona had decided to move back to his home nation of Italy. Numerous clubs were interested in the player, including his home town club

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

who had a £5 million offer accepted but Dalla Bona decided his future lay elsewhere and turned down the opportunity. He moved to

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 season ...

for around £1 million in July 2002, having played 73 games for Chelsea in all competitions and scored 6 goals. Dalla Bona made his

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

debut on 6 October 2002 as Milan defeated

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) 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 ...

6–0. During his first season at Milan, he received Champions League and

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity ...

winners medals along with the rest of the squad. Facing competition from a star-studded A.C. Milan midfield containing the likes of

Gennaro Gattuso Gennaro Ivan Gattuso (; born 9 January 1978) is an Italian professional football coach and former player, who currently serves as manager of La Liga club Valencia. He was born in Corigliano ( Calabria). As a player, he mainly played in the ce ...

Clarence Seedorf Clarence Clyde Seedorf (; born 1 April 1976) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. He is regarded by many to be one of the best midfielders of his generation. Seedorf is considered one of the most successful players in UE ...

and

Andrea Pirlo Andrea Pirlo (; born 19 May 1979) is an Italian professional football coach and former player who is head coach of Süper Lig club Fatih Karagümrük. Considered one of the best deep-lying playmakers ever, Pirlo was renowned for his vision ...

, Dalla Bona's opportunities at the club were limited and he spent various seasons on loan at different clubs in Italy, the first of which was a year-long loan at

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

. The following season he was loaned to

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the provinc ...

having made just a handful of appearances for Milan and in 2005 he was loaned to

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s ...

for a season.

Napoli

At the end of the championship he returned to A.C. Milan but after a few weeks he transferred to

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

then in the Italian

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named 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 been ...

league, on free transfer, despite still having a year left in his contract. Dalla Bona had a positive start at Napoli, with the club performing well in Serie B. His contributions to the team included a particularly stunning goal, a left footed volley from outside the box against

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

. However, as Napoli made their return to Serie A, Dalla Bona was again regularly left out of the starting line, with Napoli signing new players. On 4 February 2009, Dalla Bona announced that he had left Napoli and was hoping to train with

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium ...

to secure a permanent contract under former

teammate

Gianfranco Zola Gianfranco Zola (; born 5 July 1966) is an Italian football manager and former footballer who played predominantly as a forward. He was most recently the assistant manager of Chelsea. He spent the first decade of his playing career playing ...

. Dalla Bona announced he had rejected an offer from

side

Triestina Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918, commonly referred to as Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Originally founded in 1918, the club has been re-established several times in its history. As of the ...

because of this. He ultimately failed to secure a contact with West Ham and after another unsuccessful training spell with Fulham, he returned to Napoli. On 7 August 2009, Iraklis signed Dalla Bona on loan from Napoli for a season. However, he failed to adjust in the team, mainly due to lack of fitness and his contract was terminated in December 2009, after making just three appearances (all as a substitute) in competitive matches. On 1 February 2010 he was signed by third division side

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

. On 31 August 2010, he was loaned to

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", 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 ...

. However, Dalla Bona failed again to adjust to the team, and by the end of the season managed just a single appearance, in the

Mantova

On 31 August 2011, the final day of the summer

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer ...

, Dalla Bona signed a one-year contract for

Mantova F.C. Mantova 1911 Società a Responsabilità Limitata (Mantova 1911 s.r.l.), commonly referred to as Mantova, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Mantua ( it, Mantova), Lombardy. Mantova had played consecutively in the Italian Se ...

Honours

A.C. Milan *

: 2002–03 *

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

: 2002–03

References

External links

National Team stats at FIGC official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalla Bona, Sam 1981 births Living people People from San Donà di Piave Association football midfielders Italian footballers Italy under-21 international footballers Italy youth international footballers Italian expatriate footballers Chelsea F.C. players A.C. Milan players Bologna F.C. 1909 players U.S. Lecce players U.C. Sampdoria players S.S.C. Napoli players Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. players Hellas Verona F.C. players Atalanta B.C. players Mosta F.C. players Mantova 1911 players Premier League players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Super League Greece players Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Greece Italian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Italian expatriate sportspeople in England UEFA Champions League winning players Sportspeople from the Metropolitan City of Venice Footballers from Veneto