Claudio Zappa (born 30 March 1997) 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 le ...

who plays as a defender for

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 ...

club Real Calepina.

Club career

Early career

Zappa was born in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. He began his professional career in the youth teams of local

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

club

Lumezzane Lumezzane (Brescian: ; locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. With a population of 22,255 () it is one of the largest towns in the province of Brescia. It is situated in the Gobbia Valley, which is a side val ...

. In 2011, he was transferred to AlbinoLeffe, again in the youth sector. In 2013, he completed a transfer to Portuguese club

S.C. Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar () is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth national level, having gained promotion by winning the Aveiro FA First Division 2018/19 ...

, before returning to Italy less than a year later to sign with

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 ...

for a fee of €220,000. After impressing for the youth sides, reigning

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 ...

champions

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 ...

made an approach for Zappa, initially signing him to a 6-month loan in February 2015. Zappa was also suspended for 45 days in 2015 due to the irregular transfer to Portugal. AlbinoLeffe also appealed to the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its co ...

in order to recover part of the transfer fee.

Juventus

Juventus signed Zappa on loan in February 2015, for a loan fee of €200,000. He impressed coach

Fabio Grosso Fabio Grosso (; born 28 November 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer and current manager of Frosinone Calcio. After playing for several smaller Italian clubs, such as Renato Curi, Chieti and Perugia, he made his breakthrough dur ...

and was generally the starting

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 the Primavera side, playing in the

Campionato Nazionale Primavera The Campionato Nazionale Primavera – Trofeo Giacinto Facchetti, was an Italian football youth competition. It is organised by the Lega Serie A and the participating teams that take part in Serie A and Serie B: the first edition was held in th ...

2015–16 UEFA Youth League The 2015–16 UEFA Youth League was the third season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. After a two-year trial period, the UEFA Youth League became a permanent UEFA competition starting from th ...

Supercoppa Primavera The Supercoppa Primavera is an Italian youth teams football match played by the winners of the Campionato Primavera championship and the winners of the Coppa Italia Primavera at the beginning of the season. The competition has been held since 200 ...

and

Torneo di Viareggio The Torneo di Viareggio ( en, Viareggio Tournament), officially named the Viareggio Cup World Football Tournament Coppa Carnevale, is a youth association football tournament held annually in the commune of Viareggio, Italy and its surrounding area ...

. In June 2015 Juventus signed Zappa in a definitive deal for an additional fee of €1.5 million. On 22 July 2016, Juventus confirmed that they had loaned Zappa to

Lega Pro The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

side

Pontedera Pontedera (; la, Pons Herae) is an italian comune with a population of 29.270 inhabitants, located in the province of Pisa, Tuscany, Central Italy, central Italy. The town is located 20 km (12 miles) from Pisa and 50 km (31 miles) from Florenc ...

. He made his debut for the club in a 3–1 Loss to

Foggia Calcio Calcio Foggia 1920, commonly referred to as Foggia, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Foggia, Apulia. It currently plays in Serie C, having last been in the top level Serie A in 1995. The team gained nationwide popularity ...

in the first round of the

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 ...

, on 31 July 2016. Zappa's league debut came on 18 September 2016, playing 74 minutes against Racing Roma, after being listed

on the bench On, on, or ON may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * On (band), a solo project of Ken Andrews * ''On'' (EP), a 1993 EP by Aphex Twin * ''On'' (Echobelly album), 1995 * ''On'' (Gary Glitter album), 2001 * ''On'' (Imperial Teen album), 200 ...

for the previous two games against Olbia 1905 and

Pistoiese Unione Sportiva Pistoiese 1921 is an Italian association football club, based in Pistoia, Tuscany. Currently, Pistoiese plays in Serie D. Originally founded on 21 April 1921 and later restored after bankruptcy, the team plays their home games ...

. On 16 January 2017, Zappa was recalled from Pontedera by Juventus, and the following day was sent out on loan again, this time to

Pordenone Pordenone (; Venetian and fur, Pordenon) is the main ''comune'' of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. The name comes from Latin ''Portus Naonis'', meaning 'port on the Noncello (Latin ''Naon'') River'. ...

until 30 June 2017. On 19 July 2017 Zappa was signed by

. On 31 January 2019 he joined

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 is ...

on loan until the end of the 2018–19 season. On 2 September 2019 he joined Maltese club

Sliema Wanderers Sliema Wanderers Football Club, nicknamed "tax-Xelin" ( of the shilling), is a professional Maltese football club. It is the most successful team in Malta and hails from the seaside town of Sliema. It currently plays in the Maltese Premier Leag ...

on loan.

Mantova

On 18 August 2020 he moved to

Mantova Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Europ ...

, newly promoted to

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

Vibonese

On 31 January 2022, Zappa moved to

Vibonese Unione Sportiva Vibonese Calcio is an Italian association football club located in Vibo Valentia, Calabria. It currently plays in Serie D. History Vibonese was founded in 1928. The club in the season 2011–12 was relegated from Lega Pro Se ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zappa, Claudio 1997 births Living people Footballers from Brescia Italian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Serie C players Serie D players US Città di Pontedera players Pordenone Calcio players US Pistoiese 1921 players Juventus Next Gen players Novara FC players Mantova 1911 players Maltese Premier League players Sliema Wanderers F.C. players US Vibonese Calcio players ASD Riccione 1929 players Italian expatriate men's footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Malta Expatriate men's footballers in Malta Italy men's youth international footballers