Iacopo La Rocca (born 17 February 1984) is an Italian-Australian 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 ...

& coach, who played as a

defensive 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 boundari ...

central defender 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 ...

Club career

La Rocca started his youth career at

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, before moving to his first club

Pro Vercelli Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven natio ...

. He signed 3 years deal with Treviso. He joined various clubs on loan from Treviso

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 ...

, likes of

Chieti Chieti (, ; , nap, label= Abruzzese, Chjïétë, ; gr, Θεάτη, Theátē; lat, Theate, ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Central Italy, east by northeast of Rome. It is the capital of the province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region. ...

, Fermana,

Sassari Torres Torres is an Italian football club based in the city of Sassari. It plays in Serie C, the third division of the Italian football league system. Re-founded in 2017, the club is the continuation of the Società per l'Educazione Fisica Torres, bor ...

but he was unlucky to got injured every years and than he decided to moving to Switzerland, where he joined for four years

AC Bellinzona AC Bellinzona is a Swiss football club based in Bellinzona. It was founded in 1904, and won the Swiss Super League in 1948. After being folded in 2013 declaring bankruptcy, the team played the Ticino Group of 2.Liga, the sixth tier of the Swi ...

where he won the Challenge League and he played the Final Swiss Cup against Basel. After 4 years in Super League where he played also 6 games in UEFA Cup he joined Swiss Super League club Grasshopper. On 11 September 2012, he signed a one-year deal with A-League club

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier ...

. La Rocca scored his first goal for Western Sydney Wanderers on 18 November 2012 in just his second game, to defeat Perth Glory. In February 2013, he signed a new two-year deal with the Wanderers. On 23 March, La Rocca was sent off in the last minute of stoppage time in the third Sydney Derby of the season for elbowing Sydney midfielder Terry Antonis in the temple. The subsequent ban meant La Rocca missed the semifinal and the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

. His club nonetheless won the title in their debut season. On 2013 he played the Grand Final he got the man of the match with Broich and won the Joe Marston Medal but Western Sydney Wanderes lost in extra time 2–1 but the year after he won the

2014 AFC Champions League The 2014 AFC Champions League was the 33rd edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 12th under the current AFC Champions League title. Guangzhou Evergrande were the defen ...

, with La Rocca starting both legs of their triumph over Al-Hilal in the final and became the first Italian to win that trophy. At the

2014 FIFA Club World Cup The 2014 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2014 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was the 11th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament between th ...

in Morocco, La Rocca opened the scoring against

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul or simply Cruz Azul () is a professional football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in the Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Because "azul" means "blue" in Spanish, the club has traditionally ...

of Mexico in an eventual 1–3 loss after extra time. In June 2015, La Rocca signed a two-year contract with

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League Men under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was founded in 2003 to fil ...

. After overcoming injury, he featured heavily for Adelaide in the second half of the season and played a crucial role in the central defensive position along with teammate

Dylan McGowan Dylan John McGowan (born 6 August 1991) is an Australian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Hamilton Academical, on loan from Kilmarnock. Early life McGowan was born in Adelaide into a Scottish family from Glasgow. He is the ...

in the club's successful attempt at the Premier's Plate and inaugural Championship title. In November 2016, La Rocca became an Australian citizen, allowing him to be called up to the Australian national team and to be considered as a domestic player for his club. Melbourne City announced the signing of La Rocca on 15 July 2017 with 2 years deal. La Rocca played is first official game with Melbourne City on 13 September 2017 in FFA Cup against Sydney FC. After his retirement in 2019 he started his coaching career by taking the UEFA B License for coaching in Italy.

Honours

Club

;Western Sydney Wanderers * A-League Premiers:

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 ...

* AFC Champions League:

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Adelaide United FC * A-League Premiers: 2015–16 *

A-League Championship A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professionalism in association football, professional men's association football, soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Austral ...

: 2015–16

Individual

* Joe Marston Medal:

(shared with Thomas Broich)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:La Rocca, Iacopo 1984 births Living people Footballers from Rome Italian footballers Italian expatriate footballers A-League Men players Western Sydney Wanderers FC players S.S. Chieti Calcio players F.C. Pro Vercelli 1892 players Adelaide United FC players Melbourne City FC players AC Bellinzona players Grasshopper Club Zürich players Swiss Super League players Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Italian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate soccer players in Australia Italian expatriate sportspeople in Australia Association football midfielders Naturalised citizens of Australia Naturalised soccer players of Australia Australian people of Italian descent S.E.F. Torres 1903 players