Gianluca Curci (; born 12 July 1985) 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

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 ...

, most recently for Hammarby IF in the Swedish Allsvenskan. Curci has previously played for

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...

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, ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, 1. FSV Mainz 05 and

AFC Eskilstuna Athletic Football Club Eskilstuna, also known as AFC Eskilstuna or simply AFC, is a Swedish football club located in Eskilstuna. The club has previously been known under the names FC Café Opera and Väsby United before switching ownership and t ...

Club career

Roma

Born in Rome, Curci is a product of the

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

youth academy. At only 19, he became the club's first choice goalkeeper for the second half of the 2004–05 season after injuries to fellow goalkeepers

Ivan Pelizzoli Ivan Pelizzoli (; born 18 November 1980) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Early career After playing for Atalanta and Triestina from 1997 to 2000, he made his Serie A debut with Atalanta on 5 ...

and Carlo Zotti. He was replaced in the 2005–06 season by new Brazilian keeper Doni. Curci signed a new four-year contract on 16 July 2007.

Siena

On 25 June 2008,

confirmed they signed Curci in a co-ownership deal from

for €1.75 million and signed the remaining 50% rights of

Daniele Galloppa Daniele Galloppa (; born 15 May 1985) is an Italian football manager and a former player who played as a midfielder. He is the manager of Santarcangelo in Serie D. Although he was usually deployed as a central midfielder, he was also capable ...

for another €1.75M. In exchange, Roma signed keeper

Artur Artur is a cognate to the common male given name Arthur, meaning "bear-like," which is believed to possibly be descended from the Roman surname Artorius or the Celtic bear-goddess Artio or more probably from the Celtic word ''artos'' ("bear"). O ...

for €750,000 and defender

Simone Loria Simone Loria (born 28 October 1976) is an Italian former footballer who played as a centre-back. Loria is known for having scored a spectacular bicycle kick from the edge of the penalty area against Chievo while playing for Atalanta. Career Lor ...

for €2.8M. Curci impressed in all his matches, notably his last two Serie A matches, helping Siena overcome

1–0, and preventing

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

from scoring more than they did. Curci then impressed in the ''Tuscan Derby'' against

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 ...

, performing 3 incredible reaction saves to help Siena win 1–0.

Sampdoria

On 1 July 2010,

bought Siena's half for €2.25 million. Roma retained their half. Curci played for Sampdoria in a match for qualification to the Champions League, against Werder Bremen, but his team lost. Curci was a key player for Sampdoria during the 2010–11 season and he made some crucial saves for the club. He was an ever-present and the club's undisputed first choice goalkeeper.

Roma return

On 24 June 2011,

bought back Curci and Stefano Guberti from

for a nominal fee of €1,000 on two-year (Guberti) and three-year deals (Curci) respectively. On 22 April 2012, Curci made a substitute appearance in a

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 Cop ...

match against Juventus after Roma's starting goalkeeper

Maarten Stekelenburg Maarten Stekelenburg (; born 22 September 1982) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Eredivisie club Ajax. Stekelenburg began his career at Ajax, playing 282 matches over nine seasons in his first spell there and win ...

received a red card.

Bologna

On 16 July 2012, Curci was signed by

in a temporary deal with an option to purchase for €1 million. On 8 July 2013, the loan was extended for another season, with an option to purchase for €1.2 million. Curci also extended his contract with Roma to last until 30 June 2015.

Roma return

On 2 September 2014, Curci was included in Roma's squad for the

2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pl ...

as one of the four club trained players required under

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

rules.

Mainz 05

On 15 August 2015, Curci was signed by

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

side

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

on a two-year contract as a free agent. In January 2017, Curci had an unsuccessful trial with

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...

. He left the club on 30 January 2017, after failing to make a single league appearance.

AFC Eskilstuna

On 18 January 2018, Curci signed a two-year deal with Swedish Superettan side

. He kept 18 clean sheets in 27 league appearances, a new club record, as Eskilstuna won a promotion to Allsvenskan through qualifiers. Curci terminated his contract with AFC by mutual consent on 21 January 2019, with the club citing "personal reasons" for his departure. However, according to Curci himself, he sought to leave Eskilstuna due to differences with the club's management.

Hammarby IF

On 24 January 2019, Curci signed a six-month contract with fellow Swedish club Hammarby IF, replacing the injured starting goalkeeper

Johan Wiland Johan Kristoffer Sellberg-Wiland (born 24 January 1981) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Starting off his career in Sweden with IF Elfsborg in the early 2000s, he went on to represent F.C. Copenhagen and M ...

, with an extension option of a further one-and-a-half year. Curci confirmed his departure from the club on 8 July 2019 as his contract had expired.

International career

Curci has represented Italy multiple times at youth level. He received his first call-up to the Azzurri squad for a friendly against

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

. He has not been called up since November 2008.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Roma *

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 ...

: 2006–07, 2007–08 * Supercoppa Italiana: 2007

References

External links

FIGC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curci, Gianluca 1985 births Footballers from Rome Living people Association football goalkeepers Italian footballers A.S. Roma players A.C.R. Siena 1904 players U.C. Sampdoria players Bologna F.C. 1909 players 1. FSV Mainz 05 players AFC Eskilstuna players Hammarby Fotboll players Serie A players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Italy under-21 international footballers Italy youth international footballers Italian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Italian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Sweden Italian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden