Flavio Roma (; born 21 June 1974) is an Italian former 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 played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Club career

Roma started his career in the youth teams of

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

. He was the third goalkeeper behind

Luca Marchegiani Luca Marchegiani (; born 22 February 1966) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He represented several Italian clubs throughout his career, in particular Torino and Lazio, where he won various titles. At inter ...

and

Fernando Orsi Fernando "Nando" Orsi (born 12 September 1959 in Rome) is an Italian association football, football manager and former player, who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Playing career After starting out at A.S. Roma, Roma, O ...

before leaving the club to play for clubs 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 ...

and

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 ...

. In 1999, he was signed by the

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 ...

side

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

as part of

Simone Inzaghi Simone Inzaghi (; born 5 April 1976) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. He is the head coach of Serie A club Inter Milan. The younger brother of Filippo Inzaghi, Simone played as a striker for a host of clubs during ...

's deal, replacing Valerio Fiori as the first choice in his role, but the team was relegated at the end of season.

Monaco

In 2001, he was signed by

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 ...

, then coached by

Didier Deschamps Didier Claude Deschamps (; born 15 October 1968) is a French professional football manager and former player who has been manager of the France national team since 2012. He played as a defensive midfielder for several clubs, in France, Italy, E ...

, where he was the first choice goalkeeper ahead of Tony Sylva and Stéphane Porato until the 2008–09 season, when he lost his place to Stéphane Ruffier. He was also in the squad that played the

2004 UEFA Champions League Final The 2004 UEFA Champions League Final was an association football match played on 26 May 2004 to decide the winner of the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League. AS Monaco, a Monaco-based club representing the French Football Federation, faced Portugue ...

. During his stay at Monaco, he only missed three months in the 2005–06 season due to injuries, and a shoulder injury ruled him out of the second half of the 2001–02 season in February 2002. During his career at Monaco, Roma rejected an opportunity to join English side

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in order to sign a new contract with the club.

Milan

On 12 August 2009, Roma signed a one-year contract with

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

to replace

Zeljko Kalac Zeljko Kalac (born 16 December 1972) is an Australian former soccer goalkeeper, who is currently the manager of NK Urania Baška Voda, who play in the Croatian third division. Nicknamed "Spider" due to his tall, gangly figure, standing at 2.02& ...

, who was released from the club by mutual consent. Upon joining Milan, Roma cited joining the club as a dream come true, and Roma was expected to compete for the starting position with

Marco Storari Marco Storari (born 7 January 1977) is an Italian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. After a lengthy spell in Italy's lower leagues, he arrived in Serie A aged 27. Steady performances for Messina prompted his signing by A.C. Milan i ...

while

Christian Abbiati Christian Abbiati (born 8 July 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Abbiati, who had been with AC Milan since 1998, started his career with Monza, and later played more than 300 official matches for Mil ...

and

Dida In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Diploma in Digital Applications (DiDA) is an optional information and communication technology (ICT) course, usually studied by Key Stage 4 or equivalent school students (aged 14-16). DiDA was introduc ...

were recovering from injury. However, Milan manager

Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...

preferred Storari and, after his return from injury, Dida. In January 2010, Storari left for

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, ...

and Abbiati recovered from injury, making Roma the third-choice goalkeeper. At the end of the season, his contract was extended to an undisclosed length. In 2011, Roma started in goal in two matches in 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 ...

against

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

and Sampdoria, earning a clean sheet against Bari and conceding only one goal away against Sampdoria. On 17 May 2011, Milan announced Roma extended his contract for an additional year. On 13 May 2012, Roma announced he had played his last match for Milan.

Return to Monaco

On 2 August 2012, Roma signed for Monaco on a one-year deal on a free transfer. Following Monaco's promotion 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 ...

, Roma made his first appearance in his second spell, where he came on as a substitute for

Martin Sourzac Martin Sourzac (born 25 March 1992) is a French professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designat ...

in the second half, as Monaco won 2–1 against

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

. After making one appearance, Roma signed a contract extension. At the end of the season, he announced his retirement.

International career

Roma received his first call-up for

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 ...

on 17 November 2004 for a friendly match as

Marcello Lippi Marcello Romeo Lippi (; born 12 April 1948) is an Italian former professional football player and manager, who led the Italian national team to victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was appointed as Italy head coach in the summer of 2004 and 2 ...

was trying to identify a back-up goalkeeper for

Gianluigi Buffon Gianluigi Buffon (; born 28 January 1978) is an Italian professional footballer who captains and plays as a goalkeeper for the club Parma. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He is one of the few recorded pl ...

. Roma made his debut on 30 March 2005 in a 0–0 friendly draw with

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

after replacing

Morgan De Sanctis Morgan De Sanctis (; born 26 March 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He last played for Ligue 1 club Monaco, and currently works as sporting director for Salernitana. De Sanctis played for several Ita ...

at half-time. He played his first full match on 11 June 2005 against

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

. Due to injuries, Roma was not called up for warm-up friendlies ahead of 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 ...

. He received his last call-up to date on 16 August 2006, Italy's first match after the 2006 World Cup.

Career statistics

Honours

Monaco *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

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 ...

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 ...

: runner-up 2003–04 Milan *

2010–11 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 ...

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roma, Flavio 1974 births Living people Footballers from Rome Italian footballers Association football goalkeepers Italian expatriate footballers Italy international footballers Mantova 1911 players Venezia F.C. players U.S. Fiorenzuola 1922 S.S. players Calcio Foggia 1920 players A.C. ChievoVerona players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players AS Monaco FC players A.C. Milan players Serie A players Serie B players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Monaco Italian expatriate sportspeople in France Italian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco