Tomas Locatelli (; born 9 June 1976) is an Italian former

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 usually played as a playmaking

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

behind the forwards; he was also capable of playing as a

central midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Locatelli played over 200 matches in

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 ...

. After being a member of the club's youth side, he started his professional career at native club

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) 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), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

in 1993 and made his

debut against

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

, on 2 April 1994. He moved to

A.C. Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

in 1995, spending two seasons with the club making 10 league appearances, also winning the

1995–96 Serie A The 1995–96 Serie A title was won by Milan (15th title for the Milan-based club), with Juventus finishing as runners-up. Fourth placed Fiorentina tasted glory in the Coppa Italia, while seventh-placed Internazionale only narrowly managed to q ...

title. During his time with the club, he made his European debut in the

1996–97 UEFA Champions League The 1996–97 UEFA Champions League was the 42nd season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the fifth since its rebranding as the UEFA Champions League, and the last that involved only clubs that were champions of their domestic ...

, also scoring a goal in a 4–2 home win over Göteborg on 30 October 1996. In 1997, he moved to Udinese, and in 2000 he moved to

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 ...

, where he remained for five seasons. He signed with A.C. Siena after Bologna were relegated to

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 ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. During the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons, he played for Serie B club Mantova. In the 2010–11 season, he played for Spal in

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into ...

. Since 31 March 2012 he has played for

Arezzo Arezzo ( , ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the Province of Arezzo, province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of Above mean sea level, above sea level. As of 2 ...

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 ...

. He was banned 2 years for involvement in 2011–12 Italian football scandal on 18 June 2012.

International career

Locatelli has made 10 appearances for the

Italy national under-21 football team The Italy national under-21 football team is the national under-21 Association football, football team of Italy and is controlled by the Italian Football Federation. The team competes in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, held every two ...

, scoring one goal. He has also made 2 appearances for the senior Italy national football team, making his national team debut on 13 November 1999, in a 3–1 friendly home defeat to

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, in Lecce.

Trivia

Due to having several commonalities with Manuel Locatelli, such as birthplace and the experience of playing for both Atalanta and A.C. Milan, he was mistakenly thought to be the player's father by a number of pundits. However, he has later stated that there are no family ties between him and Manuel.

Honours

Club

;Milan *

: 1995–96

External links

AIC Profile

FIGC Profile

References

Italian men's footballers Italy men's youth international footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Italy men's international footballers Atalanta BC players AC Milan players Udinese Calcio players Bologna FC 1909 players Siena FC SSD players Mantova 1911 players SS Arezzo players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Bergamo 1976 births Living people 20th-century Italian sportsmen {{Italy-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub