Julian Uccello

Julian Paolo Uccello (born October 30, 1986 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian soccer player. He last played for the Woodbridge Strikers in league 1. Playing 7 games and scoring 7 goals. Julian also received player of the week in September.

Career

Youth

From the age of 5 to 15, Julian had played with youth clubs in Ontario, including Richmond Hill Soccer Club, Thornhill Soccer Club, Kleinburg Nobleton Soccer Club and Woodbridge Soccer Club, before moving overseas. Julian secured a trial with Manchester United for three weeks, playing a league game with the U-17 team, scoring a goal in his only game for the club. Julian then went on to trial with the Bolton Wanderers of the Premier League a year later. Following these trials in England, Uccello found a home to continue his footballing development in Italy, first being brought over by Lazio, but in the end signing on with A.C. Milan.^[1]

Professional

After graduating from Milan's youth team, Julian was put on loan with Savona of Serie D in 2004, scoring 16 goals in his first year one shy of all time record held by Panucci. At the end of his loan deal with Savona, he was released by Milan, at which point he signed with AC Sansovino on a free transfer. He quickly earned the golden boot scoring title in 2007, finishing third overall in Serie D, where he netted 24 goals during the run of play. He continued to move around the fifth tier of the Italian soccer pyramid until the summer of 2009, when he signed a one-year deal with FC Crotone. He was then was put on loan to Bellaria in C2 where he netted 10 goals in 30 games, before returning to re-sign a three-year deal with FC Crotone.^[2]

In June 2009, Uccello began to be noticed by Canadian fans when he played the first half and scored a goal at BMO Field in a Zinedine Zidane charity game, called "Zidane & Friends All Star Match," in which world soccer veterans took on the Canadian All-Stars. The game finished in a 3–3 draw, with Uccello having scored the opening goal for the Canadian All-Stars with a memorable celebration in front of the South Stand.

He finally debuted for Crotone on September 4, 2010 in a 1–1 away draw versus former Serie A team Torino. In January 2011, Uccello was loaned to A.S. Casale Calcio, with whom he had spent the 2008–09 season.^[3] In an interview he said "Both Crotone and Casale have agreed and have assured me that I'm there for one role only and that is to be their first line striker for the next six months." Uccello made his return appearance for Casale on January 15, 2011 in a 5–0 loss to Pro Patria and was elected as the Captain of Casale for the balance of the year. He returned to Crotone after his loan from Casale and remained until January 2012, when he negotiated a release from the team with a year and a half remaining on his contract.

Uccello has been the top goal scorer for five of the seven teams he has played for in Italy. Uccello, with 77 goals in Italy, has a scoring average of one goal every 162 minutes played (total 12,500 minutes), up to the end of his 2010 season.

International

Uccello first represented Canada with the under-20 team at the 2005 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament, in which Canada won Group B, going undefeated winning all three games. Julian was not a part of the Canadian national team plans until early October in 2010, when senior national team coach Stephen Hart named him in the 18 man Canada squad to play a friendly on October 8 versus Ukraine.^[4] He failed to make an appearance in the 2–2 away draw versus Ukraine, with goals for Canada from Atiba Hutchinson and Simeon Jackson.

Personal life

Uccello's parents are originally from Calabria and Bari, Italy. They both currently reside in Maple, Ontario. Julian has two younger brothers who are twins, Luca and Michael, who are both also soccer players. Luca is currently with Toronto FC II.

References