Simone Farina

Simone Farina
Personal information
Full nameSimone Farina
Date of birth18 April 1982
Place of birthRome, Italy
Height1.79 m (5 ft 10 12 in)
Playing positionDefender
Youth career
Roma
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2001–2002Roma0(0)
2001–2002Catania (loan)2(0)
2002–2004Cittadella17(1)
2004–2006Gualdo54(0)
2006–2007Celano28(2)
2007–2012Gubbio58(2)
National team
1997–1998Italy U152(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 22:20, 5 April 2010 (UTC).
† Appearances (Goals).

Simone Farina (born 18 April 1982) is a former Italian footballer who now works for Aston Villa as a Community Coach.

Biography

Early career

Born in Rome and a fan of Lazio,[1] Farina started his career at A.S. Roma and was a member of the Primavera U20 youth team in the 2000-01 season.[2] In the 2001-02 season, he left for Catania on loan. He played twice for Catania in Serie C1 and won promotion playoffs with the Sicilian club.

Roma's False accounting scandal

On 28 June 2002, he was exchanged with Alessandro Sturba who just played twice in Serie A, but both players were tagged for a nominal value of €2.4 million.[3][4] Co-currently, Roma bought back Farina's 50% registration rights (co-ownership deal) for €1.2M. Roma also made similar deals with other clubs before the end of fiscal year on 30 June, and created a "profit" of €55million by selling their youth players. But all the "profit" gained, was in terms of the historic cost of buying other teams' youth players.[5] In 2004, Roma was started to be investigated [6] and fined €60,000 on 30 October 2007 by Criminal Court of Rome for irregularity on youth players transfer.[7]

Cittadella

At Cittadella, Farina only played 17 times in two seasons with the club in Serie C1. In June 2004, Roma gave up the remaining rights for free (which the nominal value was €1.2M).[8]

Serie C2 clubs and Gubbio

Farina then left for Serie C2 club Gualdo. After the club went bankrupt, he joined Celano also in Serie C2. In June 2007, he signed a 1-year contract with Serie C2 club Gubbio.[9] With Gubbio he won two promotions, and reached out his career peak by playing in the 2011–12 Serie B with his club.

2011 Italian football scandal

He become famous during the 2011 Italian football scandal when he was approached and offered €200,000 by Alessandro Zamperini, a former teammate at A.S. Roma, to influence the outcome of an Italian Cup match between Cesena and Gubbio on 30 November. The player refused and reported the incident to the police,[10] resulting in the arrest of 17 people the following month.[1] Following this, the Italian national team manager Cesare Prandelli invited him to train with the national team for three days as a prize for his honesty.[11] For the same reason, he received an award from Sepp Blatter during the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or ceremony.[12]

Retirement and appointment by Aston Villa

Farina retired from football in Summer 2012, and joined Aston Villa as a Community Coach in September that year.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Honour bound" When Saturday Comes, March 2012, Issue 301
  2. "Primavera Squad 2000/2001". Channel 2. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  3. Vittorio Malagutti (2002-11-07). "La Roma ha un buco nel bilancio? Per coprirlo basta vendere 26 sconosciuti". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  4. Andrea Righi (2002-07-04). "Il Cittadella attivo sul mercato". Tutto Mercato Web (in Italian). Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  5. "Calciopoli: pm, falsi i bilanci di Roma e Lazio". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 2006-05-22. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  6. Glenn Moore (2004-12-04). "Sensi investigation rocks Roma". The Independent. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  7. "Doping amministrativo Roma colpevole, Lazio no". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian). 2007-10-30. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  8. "Approvazione Situazione Mensile al 31 maggio 2004". AS Roma (in Italian). Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  9. Stefano Sica (2007-06-23). "UFFICIALE: Farina al Gubbio". Tutto Mercato Web. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  10. "Ex-Atalanta captain Doni arrested in match-fixing case". IBN Live. 2011-12-21. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
  11. "Prandelli chiama il 'giocatore pulito' Farina si allenerà con gli azzurri". La Repubblica (in Italian). 2011-12-21. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
  12. http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio_Estero/Primo_Piano/09-01-2012/pallone-d-oro-2011-messi-tris-consecutivo-come-platini-804251164427.shtml

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Amin Motevaselzadeh
FIFA Fair Play Award Winner
2011
Succeeded by
Incumbent