Christian José Manfredini Sisostri (born 1 May 1975) is an Ivorian retired

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 le ...

who played as a

left midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or left winger. Manfredini also holds Italian citizenship, having been raised in Italy.

Personal life

Christian Manfredini was born Christian José Sisostri, in

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

. At the age of 4, he was adopted by an Italian family with the surname Manfredini from

Battipaglia Battipaglia () is a municipality (''comune'') in the province of Salerno, Campania, south-western Italy. Famed as a production place of buffalo mozzarella, Battipaglia is the economic hub of the Sele plain. History Formerly part of the ancien ...

, in the

province of Salerno The Province of Salerno ( it, Provincia di Salerno) is a province in the Campania region of Italy. __TOC__ Geography The largest towns in the province are: Salerno, the capital, which has a population of 131,950; Cava de' Tirreni, Battipagli ...

Club career

Cosenza

A versatile midfielder, Manfredini is a product of the

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

youth system and spent the early years of his career sent on loan by Juve to smaller clubs. Manfredini spent four seasons with different sides, playing in both

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

and C2 until he was sent to

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

in 1998 where he made his debut in

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 ...

at the age of 23.

Genoa

In 1999, after a year with Cosenza, Manfredini joined

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, for 700 million lire or €361,520 (50% rights), also in

at the time. After just a season with Genoa, Manfredini then joined a club which was making its way forward on the Italian football scene. Genoa bought the residual rights from Juventus for 600 million lire and resold Manfredini in the summer 2000.

Chievo

In 2000, Manfredini joined

ChievoVerona Associazione Calcio ChievoVerona, commonly referred to as ChievoVerona or simply Chievo , is a former professional Italian football club named after and based in Chievo, a suburb of 4,500 inhabitants in Verona, Veneto, and owned by Paluani, a ...

, and was an important part of the first ever Chievo side to reach

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 ...

, along with Eriberto formed the "back arrow" as both wings. The team continued to surprise as they found themselves top of Serie A, eventually finishing fifth and achieving a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

place.

Lazio

Manfredini did not stay any longer though as he had caught the eye of giants

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, who he joined in 2002 in co-ownership deal for €6.715 million or 13 billion lire (10 billion lire cash (€5.165 million cash) plus half of registration rights of Pesaresi tagged for €1.549 million or 3 billion lire). Lazio later write-down the value of Manfredini to €2.3 million, after both club withdrew the remain 50% registration rights. At first, Manfredini failed to break into the strong Lazio side and was sent on loan to

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El ...

in Spain, as well as

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

and

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 fo ...

. In 2004, Lazio went into financial meltdown and were forced to sell many of their top players. Manfredini was recalled to the team and while not always a regular in the first eleven, made many appearances for the capital club. Manfredini also scored a goal in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

against German side

SV Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

. Manfredini did not play any game in

2009–10 Serie A The 2009–10 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 108th season of top-tier Italian football, the 78th in a round-robin tournament. There were three promoted teams from the Serie B, replacing the three teams that w ...

and

2010–11 Serie A The 2010–11 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 109th season of top-tier Italian football, the 79th in a round-robin tournament, and the 1st since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B ...

. His contract was extended 5-year on 1 July 2006. His contract with Lazio expired in June 2011 and was not renewed.

Sambonifacese

He has signed with A.C. Sambonifacese on 16 July 2011 and has played 11 games in the season 2011–12.

Agropoli

In the season 2012–13 he played for Agropoli, newly promoted in

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

International career

In 2006, Manfredini was handed his maiden national team callup by his country of birth,

. On 1 March 2006, Manfredini was selected for the squad to face

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 ...

in a friendly match, however remained an unused substitute. He was not selected for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. Manfredini was called up again for the friendly match against

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

on 16 August 2006, but did not get to play either. In November 2008, Ivory Coast's new manager, Bosnian Vahid Halilhodžić, gave Manfredini a recall to the national side for the friendly game against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, in which Manfredini was finally able to make his official debut for the Ivorian national team.

References

External links

Official SSLazio.it profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manfredini, Christian Ivorian men's footballers Ivory Coast men's international footballers Genoa CFC players AC ChievoVerona players SS Lazio players CA Osasuna players ACF Fiorentina players AC Perugia Calcio players Cosenza Calcio 1914 players Serie A players Serie B players La Liga players Ivorian expatriate men's footballers Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Men's association football midfielders Italian people of Ivorian descent Adoptees Fermana FC players US Pistoiese 1921 players Avezzano Calcio players 1975 births Living people Footballers from Abidjan US Agropoli 1921 players