Antonio Barreca (born 18 March 1995) is an Italian 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 plays as a

left-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 ...

for club

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, ...

Club career

Early career

Born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

to Sicilian parents, he grew up in the

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

youth, where he played for each youth category up to the '' Primavera''. In 2013–14, he led the Primavera to the finals of the Campionato Primavera, lost on penalties to

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona, which competes in the second ...

. Coinciding with Torino's injury problems that season he was regularly called up to the first team 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 ...

Loans to Cittadella and Cagliari

In his first season as a professional, Barreca was sent on loan to

Cittadella Cittadella ( vec, Sitadeła) is a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, northern Italy, founded in the 13th century as a military outpost of Padua. The surrounding wall has been restored and is in circumference with a diameter of around ...

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, 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 ...

. He made his debut in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

, lost 4–1 to

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; egl, label=Modenese dialect, Modenese, Sasól ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town ...

. Barreca scored his first goal in

on 15 November 2014 in a 5–2 away loss to

Carpi Carpi may refer to: Places * Carpi, Emilia-Romagna, a large town in the province of Modena, central Italy * Carpi (Africa), a city and former diocese of Roman Africa, now a Latin Catholic titular bishopric People * Carpi (people), an ancie ...

. On 17 June 2015, he was loaned to

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

with a buyout clause and buy back clause in favour of Torino. He made his debut with the ''Sardi'' in the eighth round, away to

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It i ...

(1–0). He made 15 appearances for Cagliari, led by

Massimo Rastelli Massimo Rastelli (born 27 December 1968) is an Italian football manager and former player who played as a striker. He is the current head coach of club Avellino. Career Playing A second striker/winger, Rastelli started his career with Serie D ...

, who won the championship and were promoted to Serie A. On 26 June 2016 his contract was redeemed by Torino.

Torino

He made his debut for Torino on 13 August 2016, in the

of the

, won 4–1 against

Pro Vercelli Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven natio ...

at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino. On 18 September, at age 21, he made his debut in

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

, entering as a substitute for Christian Molinaro in the first half of the match Torino Empoli (0–0). In December 2016 he was awarded the best young player of the year by the USSI (Unione Stampa Sportiva Italiana).

Monaco

On 10 July 2018, he was sold to

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

club

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 ...

. On 25 August 2022, Barreca's contract with Monaco was terminated by mutual consent.

Loans to Newcastle United, Genoa, Fiorentina, and Lecce

On 31 January 2019, Barreca joined

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side Newcastle United on loan until the end of the 2018–19 season. He made his only appearance coming on as a substitute against Tottenham Hostspur in a 1-0 away loss. On 11 July 2019, he joined

Genoa C.F.C. Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to as Genoa (), is a professional football club based in Genoa, Liguria, Italy, that competes in , the second division of the Italian football league system. Established in 1893, Genoa is ...

on loan with an option to buy. On 5 October 2020, he signed for

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

on the same basis. In 2021 he was loaned to

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

Return to Cagliari

On 25 August 2022, Barreca signed a three-year contract with

Sampdoria

On 18 July 2023, Barreca moved to

on a two-year deal.

International career

He represented the Italy U-20 team on 6 January 2013 in a match valid for the

Under-20 Four Nations Tournament (german: Internationalen U-20 Spielrunde) is an annual under-20 football tournament. From the 2003–04 edition until the 2009–10 edition, the participating nations were Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland (the four Alps, Alpine nations). In ...

. ''Gli Azzurrini'' lost 2–1 away to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. He made his debut with the Italy U-21 squad on 12 August 2015, in a friendly match against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, played in

Telki Telki is a village near Budakeszi, in Hungary, some away from Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the secon ...

. In June 2017, he was included in the Italy under-21 squad for the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship by manager

Luigi Di Biagio Luigi Di Biagio (; born 3 June 1971) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. A former defensive midfielder, Di Biagio last played for Ascoli Calcio 1898 in 2007, and previously also played for several other Italian clubs ...

. Italy were eliminated in the semi-finals following a 3–1 defeat to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

on 27 June.

Style of play

Barreca mainly covers the role of a left full-back or wing-back, but is often used with good results as a winger: he has notable speed, crossing ability and vision of the game.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Cagliari *

: 2015–16 Monaco *

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries. His ...

runner-up: 2018 Lecce *

: 2021–22

References

External links

* *
Goal Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barreca, Antonio 1995 births Living people Men's association football fullbacks Italian men's footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Italy men's youth international footballers People of Sicilian descent Footballers from Turin AS Cittadella players Cagliari Calcio players Torino FC players AS Monaco FC players Newcastle United F.C. players Genoa CFC players ACF Fiorentina players US Lecce players UC Sampdoria players Serie A players Serie B players Ligue 1 players Premier League players Championnat National 2 players Italian expatriate men's footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Expatriate men's footballers in Monaco Italian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England