Manchester United’s Italians
With Italian defender Matteo Darmian set to sign for Manchester United, he will join a remarkably small number of Italians ever to have played for Manchester United. The versatile Torino man would the second signing if the summer, but the only Italian on the team. So, who came before him?
Giuseppe Rossi (2004 to 2007)
The Fiorentina forward was born in New Jersey but has been capped since under-16 with Italy and has gone up the ranks and now holds 30 caps and scored 7 goals for the Azurri.
However his career began properly when he joined Manchester United from Parma’s youth setup in 2004. He made his debut that year, in the League Cup, and made his Premier League debut the year later.
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The striker made 14 appearances overall for United, scoring 4 goals. All of those goals came in the 2005-06 season. He also scored 1 Premier League goal for Newcastle while on loan the next season. He moved to Villareal in 2007 where he found success but was always dogged by injuries, an issue that still affects him today.
Rossi has been at times dubbed “the one that got away” due to his success after leaving Old Trafford, and has since had parallels drawn with Gerrard Pique and Paul Pogba as prospects who should have been kept at Old Trafford rather than being shown the door.
Federico Macheda (2008 to 2014)
Now playing for Cardiff in the Championship, Macheda had no less than six loan spells away from Manchester United during his time there after fizzling out since a strong start.
Macheda was signed from Lazio aged 16 and went on to make 36 total appearances for Manchester United. He scored on his debut to win the game for United against Aston Villa with the score at 2-2 in the last minutes of the match, but ending 3-2 thanks to the Italian’s efforts. He also found the net in the next league game after just 46 seconds having coming on as a substitute in the second half against Sunderland.
This saw his stock rise but a did not translate into long-term success in the first team, also hampered by injuries. Macheda was subsequently loaned out to various clubs before settling at Cardiff in 2014 having been signed by former United reserves manager and club legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and scoring twice on his debut.
Rodrigo Possebon (2008 to 2010)
Brazilian born but to an Italian father, Possebon came to United due to the club following up their interest in the Da Silva twins Fabio and Rafael. The Brazilian scouts spotted Possebon and he was subsequently signed.
He made his debut by coming off the bench for Ryan Giggs in August 2008, but suffered a leg injury in September that was initially suspected to be a broken leg. Luckily it was not as serious as first thought. He was sent on loan to Italian outfit Braga but fell out of favour there and made just one appearance.
Possebon left United in 2010 to play in Brazil, where he still plays today. He has one under-20 cap for Italy but has not made any international appearances for either Italy or Brazil since.
Davide Petrucci (2009 to 2014)
Born in Rome, Petrucci came to Manchester in 2008 as a youth player from Roma and signed a senior contract in 2009. He had been very successful for his home-club’s youth team but was only offered the minimum youth wage by the club for fear it would upset other players if he earned more at the same age.
Manchester United came calling and he signed, with his father also getting a job in England as part of the deal in order to comply with FIFA regulations. But he never played first team football for United, and had loan spells at Peterborough, Antwerp and Charlton Athletic before his contract was terminated by mutual consent in 2014 and he signed shortly after for Romanian side CFR Cluj.
Massimo Taibi (1999 to 2000)
Signed for 4.5 million in 1999 to replace the departing Peter Schmeichel, Taibi became infamous almost instantly despite only playing four games for the club. He was nicknamed “The Blind Venetian” by the press for his goalkeeping errors and conceded five in one game against Chelsea, ending an unbeaten streak that had lasted almost a year.
However, he is one of only two goalkeepers ever to score from open play in Serie A when he joined Reggina. He netted from a header to level 1-1 in the 87th minute against Udinese. So he has something of a positive legacy to leave behind. Taibi retired in 2009.
Carlo Sartori (1965 to 1973)
Carlo played under four different managers in his time at Old Trafford, having joined as a youngster when his family moved to England after the Second World War. He played numerous times for the youth and reserve teams where he showed his promise but it took a long time for this to translate to first team action. One of his most memorable moments was scoring the winning goal against Anderlecht in Europe in 1968.
Sartori was one of the first overseas youth-products at Manchester United and their first Italian so is something of a pioneer and holds a special place in United history. He earned his first team start as a replacement for an injured George Best against Liverpool. The Italian would make 55 senior appearances for United and scored 6 goals before leaving again for his homeland to play for Bologna, also representing Italy at the Army World Cup while on National Service, helping them lift the trophy. He later captained Rimini to promotion into Serie B.
He retired from football in 1984, and continued running the family business and only retired from that in 2013 as he passed the business onto his nephew. A fascinating figure who is largely forgotten despite his special place in the history of the club.
How much history will Darmian make? Which Italian will join next? Who knows. Arrivederci, and grazie for reading.