Franco Lalli (born March 11, 1985) is a Canadian former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who most recently played as a midfielder for North York Astros in the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; french: Ligue canadienne de soccer — LCS) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (C ...

Club career

Lalli began playing soccer at the youth level with the Woodbridge Strikers, Woodbridge Town Football Club, Brampton Lions, Ontario Provincial team and the University of Notre Dame before playing abroad in Italy, where he had stints with U.S.D. Lucera Calcio, Foggia Calcio,

S.S. Cavese 1919 Cavese 1919 S.r.l., commonly known as just Cavese, is an Italian football club based in Cava de' Tirreni, Campania, that currently plays in . The first city club was founded in 1919 as Unione Sportiva Cavese. It was refounded as Pro Cavese in 19 ...

US Avellino Unione Sportiva Avellino 1912, commonly known as US Avellino, is an Italian professional football club based in Avellino, Campania. It competes in Serie C, the third tier of Italian football. It is the official continuity club of US Avellino ...

and Foggia Calcio. In 2005, he signed with Lombard-Pápa TFC in the Hungarian National Championship II, before being released in 2006. On April 17, 2008 the North York Astros announced the signing of Lalli for the 2008 season. He recorded his first Astros goal on August 9 against the Brampton Lions. Throughout the season Lalli helped the Astros set an all time record for most points and wins in a season, and helped the team qualify for the playoffs. In the quarterfinal match of the playoffs Lalli scored the Astros only goal to bring the match to

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

, but the Serbian White Eagles would score the winning goal to advance to the semifinals.

International career

Lalli appeared for Canada in the

2005 FIFA World Youth Championship The 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship was the 15th edition of the FIFA World Youth Championship. It took place in the Netherlands between 10 June and 2 July 2005. Venues Qualification The following 24 teams qualified for the 2005 FIFA Worl ...

, although he did not play in the tournament. In total he recorded four appearances with the Canadian national U-20 team.

Style of play

A versatile player, Lalli is known for being an all-rounder, and can play as a forward or as an

offensive 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 ...

on both the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

or as right flanks.

Personal life

Lalli lives in Toronto and is fan of

Roberto Baggio Roberto Baggio (; born 18 February 1967) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a second striker, or as an attacking midfielder, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. He is the former pre ...

.https://www.facebook.com/people/Franco-Lalli/505375990

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lalli, Franco 1985 births Men's association football midfielders Brampton City United FC players Canada men's youth international soccer players Canadian Soccer League (1998–present) players Canadian men's soccer players Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Living people Pápai FC footballers North York Astros players Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's soccer players Soccer players from Toronto