Luca Antonelli (; born 11 February 1987) is a former 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 played as a

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 ...

Early life

Antonelli was born in

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

. He is the son of Roberto Antonelli, a former footballer who played for

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

from 1977 until 1982 as a striker.

Club career

After spending a few seasons in the A.C. Milan youth teams, Antonelli made his first team debut in a

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 ...

game against

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. ...

on 8 November 2006. On 23 December, he made also his

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 ...

debut, in a match against

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

. In the summer of 2007 Antonelli was loaned out to

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 ...

club

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 ...

, but he impressed so much that during the January transfer window

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

secured him on loan from

for the rest of the Serie A season. He made his first appearance for the ''Gialloblu'' against

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

on 16 March 2008.

Parma

In June 2008, Parma had acquired half of the contractual rights from Milan, for €750,000. While the following summer, he was fully transferred for another €2.5 million, which Milan made a financial income of €1.75 million as the value of the retained half had increased from €0.75 million to €2.5 million.

Genoa

In January 2011, Antonelli was transferred to Genoa for €7 million. Genoa also signed

Alberto Paloschi Alberto Paloschi (; born 4 January 1990) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Siena. Club career Milan Paloschi won the National Under-17s Championship with Milan in the 2006–07 season. He scored 3 goals in a ...

for €4.35 million and sold

Raffaele Palladino Raffaele Palladino (; born 17 April 1984) is an Italian professional football coach and former player who is head coach of club Monza. Club career On 3 July 2008, Palladino was signed by Genoa in co-ownership deal, priced €5million (for 50% ...

(€3 million) and

Francesco Modesto Francesco Modesto (born 16 February 1982) is an Italian football coach and a former player, currently in charge as manager of club Vicenza. As a player, he was a wing-back or winger on the left flank. Playing career Cosenza Modesto started ...

(€2.5 million) to Parma. The club soon sold

Domenico Criscito Domenico "Mimmo" Criscito (; born 30 December 1986) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a left-back. He is set to join club Genoa on 2 January 2023. A versatile player, Criscito is effective both offensively and defensively and is ...

as Antonelli had succeeded Criscito as full back.

Return to A.C. Milan

In February 2015, Antonelli moved back to his debut club

, for a fee of €4.5 million signing a three-and-a-half-year contract. On his debut for his return to Milan on 7 February 2015, Antonelli scored a goal from a corner kick off a header to tie the match with

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 ...

at 1–1, which did not prove decisive, as Milan eventually lost the match 3–1.

Empoli

On 11 August 2018, Antonelli transferred to

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

. On 5 October 2020, his contract with Empoli was terminated by mutual consent.

Miami FC

On 17 February 2021, Antonelli was signed by

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

side

Miami FC The Miami FC is an American professional soccer team based in Miami, Florida that competes in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. The club began play in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 2016 se ...

. On 10 November 2022, after two seasons with Miami, Antonelli announced his retirement from professional football.

International career

Antonelli made his senior international debut with the Italy national team on 3 September 2010 against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Milan *

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 ...

: 2006–07 *

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 ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

References

External links

*
AIC Profile

FIGC Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonelli, Luca Living people 1987 births Sportspeople from Monza Italian footballers Footballers from Lombardy Association football defenders Italy international footballers Italy youth international footballers A.C. Milan players S.S.C. Bari players Parma Calcio 1913 players Genoa C.F.C. players Empoli F.C. players Miami FC players Serie A players Serie B players USL Championship players Italian expatriate footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States