Andrea Raggi (; born 24 June 1984) is an Italian retired professional

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 ...

who played as a defender. He was a versatile player, being capable of playing both as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

and as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Club career

Raggi started his footballing career with Empoli, where he spent a total of four seasons with the first team.

Palermo

On 28 May 2008, Empoli announced his sale to Palermo for €7 million on a four-year contract. His failure to break into the first team led Palermo to send Raggi out on loan to a number of teams. In January 2009 he joined

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

, then moving again to spend the whole of the 2009–10 season with

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

Bari loan

In July 2010, he was loaned out for a third consecutive time, joining Bari. He was out-favoured by

Giampiero Ventura Gian Piero Ventura (; born 14 January 1948) is an Italian football manager. His playing career as a midfielder was spent in the lower leagues, having not made the grade at Sampdoria, where he began his coaching career with the youth team in 197 ...

in mid-season, who originally expected Raggi to play as a centre-back. Instead, Raggi was the starting right-back as

Andrea Masiello Andrea Masiello (born 5 February 1986) is an Italian professional footballer, who plays as a centre-back for club Südtirol. He is perhaps best known for match-fixing in the Derby of Puglia, whilst playing for Bari, scoring an own goal to g ...

, originally a right-back, remained as a temporary centre-back which Masiello already played since January 2010. He also played as a left-back to replace Alessandro Parisi against

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

on 12 December. After the closure of the winter transfer window, Parisi and Masiello re-took the full-backs position, after the signing of centre-back

Kamil Glik Kamil Jacek Glik (Polish pronunciation: ; born 3 February 1988) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Serie B club Benevento and the Poland national team. The previous clubs Glik played for include Piast Gliwice fro ...

. Raggi blamed Ventura for playing so few games. The following August, he permanently moved to

, for €200,000.

Monaco

In July 2012, Raggi moved to

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, and later signed a three-year contract with the team. On 19 April 2017, after defeating

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

6–3 on aggregate, AS Monaco reached the semi–finals of the

2016–17 UEFA Champions League The 2016–17 UEFA Champions League was the 62nd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 25th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pl ...

. Later that year, Raggi won the

2016–17 Ligue 1 The 2016–17 Ligue 1 season was the 79th season since its establishment. Paris Saint-Germain were the defending champions. The fixtures were announced on 1 June 2016. The season began on 12 August 2016 and ended on 20 May 2017. On 17 May 2017, ...

title with the club. In September 2017, he signed a two-year contract extension on a €2 million annual salary, which would keep him at the club until June 2019, with AS Monaco confirming Raggi's departure on 28 June 2019

International career

On 24 March 2007, Raggi made his International debut for the Italy U-21 side against the

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

team in a 3–3 draw at the new

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

Career statistics

Honours

Empoli *

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named 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 been ...

: 2004–05 Monaco * Ligue 1: 2016–17 * Ligue 2:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Individual * Ligue 2 Team of the Season:

References

External links

Profile at Football.it
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raggi, Andrea 1984 births Living people People from La Spezia Sportspeople from the Province of La Spezia Italian footballers Footballers from Liguria Association football defenders Italy under-21 international footballers Empoli F.C. players Palermo F.C. players U.C. Sampdoria players Bologna F.C. 1909 players S.S.C. Bari players AS Monaco FC players Serie A players Serie B players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Italian expatriate footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Expatriate footballers in Monaco