Nicola Legrottaglie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Nicola Legrottaglie
Full name	Nicola Legrottaglie
Date of birth	October 20, 1976 (1976-10-20) (age 31)
Place of birth	Gioia del Colle, Italy
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Centre-back
Club information
Current club	Juventus
Number	33
Youth clubs
1994-1996	Bari
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1996-1997 1997-1998 1998-2003 2000 2000-2001 2003- 2005 2005-2006	Pistoiese (loan) Prato Chievo → Reggiana (loan) → Modena (loan) Juventus → Bologna (loan) → Siena (loan)	31 (3) 26 (0) 66 (6) 4 (1) 32 (1) 55 (3) 9 (0) 28 (0)
National team²
1994 2002-2004	Italy U-18 Italy	1 (0) 7 (1)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of December 7, 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of August 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Nicola Legrottaglie (born 20 October 1976 in Gioia del Colle, Bari) is an Italian international defender currently with Italian Serie A side Juventus. He is 1.85 metres tall and weighs 73 kg.

1 Football career
- 1.1 Juventus
2 International goals
3 External links

[edit] Football career

He began his career with Bari back in 1994 before moving to Pistoiese and Prato. In 1998, he joined Chievo and then Modena in 2000, before returning to Chievo in 2001. He made his name there, and he was rewarded with a move to Juventus in 2003. [1]

[edit] Juventus

He was a full member of the squad in the 2003-04 season, playing 21 games and scoring twice. But new coach Fabio Capello did not provide him with any playing time the following year, and Legrottaglie had to move on loan to Bologna F.C. 1909 in the 2005 January transfer window (9 games plus relegation play-offs).

After that he returned to Juventus, only to be loaned out to Siena for the 2005-2006 season, together with Igor Tudor and youth products Matteo Paro, Daniele Gastaldello, Antonio Mirante, Douglas Packer, Cristian Molinaro, Luca Cacciotto and Rey Volpato. He was expected to play a role in 2006-07, as Juventus looked for experienced players to get them back up to Serie A. He ended up playing in 10 games out of 42, with a red card.

In 2007-08, Legrottaglie started where he left off the previous season, in the subs bench. However, after the serious injury suffered by new signing Jorge Andrade, he was promoted to the starting eleven for the game against Reggina on September 26. He scored the opener in a 4-0 routing. Since arriving, Legrottaglie has been everything he was hyped to be years ago. The Legrottaglie-Chiellini center-back partnership has allowed only 9 goals in 14 games since Andrade's injury.

His contract ran originally run until summer 2008 but, in October 2007, due to his excellent form, he was awarded a 2-year extension. Legrottaglie Had a Phenomenal season and if he keeps it up his top form, Donadoni wont be afriad to pick him up for the Italian Squad