Luca Tognozzi (born 3 October 1977) is a former Italian

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

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 ...

Club career

Early career

He began his career in the youth team at Fiorentina, but due to a lack of opportunities at this level he played for Colligiana and Castiglionese before moving to Montevarchi, who were then in the Serie C1. Unable to break into the first team he moved back to Serie D, first with Fortis Juventus, who were managed by Maurizio Sarri. He became one of the manager's favourite players and followed Sarri first to Sansovino where he helped the club to promotion from serie D to Serie C2. He then rejoined Sarri at Sangiovannese where a promotion to Serie C1 followed. Success with both of these clubs saw him move to

Pescara Pescara (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Pescàrë; nap, label= Pescarese, Piscàrë) is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 119,217 (2018) residents (and approxim ...

then in Serie B where he played well for two seasons. His performances attracted the attention of bigger clubs and he was sold to

Reggina Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo. They are nic ...

, who were then in the top flight of Italian football (Serie A).

Reggina

Tognozzi made his Serie A debut on 15 October 2006 in a game against Roma which finished 1–0 to the Roman side. Tognozzi played a major role in the 2006/2007 season that saw Reggina avoid relegation to Serie B. This was a remarkable achievement considering the 11 penalty point penalty the club had incurred following the second wave of the Serie A match-fixing scandal. The following season Tognozzi started well but was injured on 21 October 2007 in the home game against Inter due to a reckless challenge by

Patrick Vieira Patrick Vieira (born 23 June 1976) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Crystal Palace. He is widely considered as one of the greatest midfielders of his generation. Vieira began his career at ...

. He injured the third metatarsal of his right foot and was out for two months. When he returned to the team he soon returned to form and was again able to contribute to them avoiding relegation (the ''salvezza'').

Loan to Brescia and return to Pescara

Tognozzi was loaned out to Brescia on 2 February 2009, which was the final day of the winter transfer window. Brescia held the rights to a first refusal on an acquisition of Tognozzi, should he perform well. This was not to be, however, and he returned to Reggina, who had just been relegated to Serie B. On 10 July 2009 he was re-signed by his old club

, where he stayed until the summer of 2011 after making over 50 appearances and scoring 3 goals.

Reunited with Sarri: Sorrento

On 31 August 2011 Tognozzi signed a one-year contract for

Sorrento Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana rail ...

, which reunited him with his old manager and "mentor" Maurizio Sarri, who had managed him at

, Sansovino and Sangiovannese. However, on 11 January 2012 he joined Borgo a Buggiano on free transfer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tognozzi, Luca Italian footballers A.S.D. Olimpia Colligiana players Delfino Pescara 1936 players Reggina 1914 players Brescia Calcio players A.S.D. Sorrento players Montevarchi Calcio Aquila 1902 players A.C. Sansovino players A.S.D. Sangiovannese 1927 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Association football midfielders Footballers from Florence 1977 births Living people