Massimo Colomba (born 24 August 1977, in

Villars-sur-Glâne Villars-sur-Glâne (; frp, Velârs-sur-Gllânna ) is a municipality in the district of Sarine in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. Geography Villars-sur-Glâne has an area, , of . Of this area, or 29.3% is used for agricultural purposes ...

) is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

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

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 ...

. He is currently the goalkeeper coach of both

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

Career

As a child Colomba played in the youth teams of his local side FC Villars-sur-Glâne. In 1995, he moved to

Fribourg , neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne , twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France) , website = www.ville-fribourg.ch , Location of , Location of () () o ...

and played one year for FC Richemond and one for FC Beauregard. Colomba began his professional career with Neuchatel Xamax in 1997. He was their reserve goalkeeper for three years and first-choice keeper during the 2000–01 and 2001–02 seasons. At the beginning of the 2002–03 season he joined

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss football club based in Aarau. They play in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was formed on 26 May 1902 by workers from a local ...

and was the club's first-choice goalkeeper. On 26 April 2003 he scored his first and only goal for Aarau in the match against

FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the Swiss Super League. History Founde ...

. He played in Aarau until the 2007/08 season. Because he was usurped by

Ivan Benito Ivan Benito (born 27 August 1976) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designa ...

he left the club at the end of the season and joined

Grasshoppers Zürich Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshoppe ...

as understudy to

Eldin Jakupović Eldin Jakupović (; born 2 October 1984) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC. He started his professional career at Grasshopper Club Zürich in 2004, then moved to FC Thun a ...

. On 16 June 2009, he joined

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

as reserve goalkeeper, behind first choice keeper

Franco Costanzo Franco Costanzo Geymonat (born 5 September 1980) is a former Argentine football goalkeeper who last played for Chilean club Universidad Católica of the Primera División. He has earned the reputation of being an eccentric goalkeeper by ofte ...

, on a three-year contract. Colomba joined Basel's first team for their 2008–09 season under head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player who most recently coached Schalke 04. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1 July 1999 to 27 May 2009, winning ...

. After four appearances in test games, Colomba played his domestic league debut for the team in the away game in the

Letzigrund is a stadium in Zürich, Switzerland, and the home of the athletics club LC Zürich, and the football clubs FC Zürich and Grasshopper Club Zürich. LC Zürich is a spin-off of FC Zürich whose members constructed the stadium in 1925. Grasshopper ...

on 16 August as Basel were defeated 1–3 by his former club Grasshopper Club. As Costanzo suffered an injury in October, Colomba replaced him successfully for four months. Basel joined the

2009–10 UEFA Europa League The 2009–10 UEFA Europa League was the first season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The competition was previously known as the UEFA Cup, which had been in existence for 38 years. Spain ...

in the second qualifying round. Basel advanced to the group stage, in which despite winning three of the six games the ended in third position and were eliminated. They finished four points behind group winners

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 ...

and one behind

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, against whom they lost 3–2 in the last game of the stage. Colomba played the full 90 minutes. At the end of the 2009–10 season he won the

Double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

with his club. They won the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

Championship title with 3 points advantage over second placed Young Boys. Colomba had 16 league appearences. The team won the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

, winning the final 6–0 against Lausanne-Sport. Colomba played all the cup games except the final. During the off-season before the 2010–11 season,

Yann Sommer Yann Sommer (born 17 December 1988) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach and the Switzerland national team. Sommer completed his apprenticeship at Basel, where he won the Swi ...

returned from his loan period with Grasshopper Club and it had been announced in advance that he would replace Constanzo at the end of the season. Colomba slipped down the hierarchy and became third choice keeper. Colomba won his second Swiss Championship at the end of the

2010–11 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 ...

season, topping the table just one point clear of rivals

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. At the end of the 2011–12 season Colomba won his second

with the club. They won the

Championship title with 20 points advantage. The team won the

, winning the final 4–3 in a penalty shootout against

Luzern , neighboring_municipalities= Adligenswil, Ebikon, Emmen, Horw, Kriens, Malters, Meggen, Neuenkirch Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a ...

. Colomba had played in three of the cup games On 17 May 2012 it was announced on the FCB homepage that Colomba was to retire from active football, but would continue his career with the club as goalie trainer. During his active career with the club, Colomba played a total of 57 games for Basel. 19 of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

, seven in the

, three in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

and 28 were friendly games. On 4 February 2015 Basel announced that Massimo Colomba had extended his contract with them. On 1 July 2015, he also became the goalkeeper coach of the Swish U20 national team, a side job which fulfilled until 31 December 2017.COLOMBA WIRD GOALIE-TRAINER DER SCHWEIZER U-20
�� fcb.ch, 15 May 2017 On 10 June 2022 Basel announced that their new trainer staff had been assigned and that Colomba was leaving the club after 13 very successful years with the club. On 7 September 2022

announced that Colomba had joined them as new goalkeeper coach.

Titles and honours

Basel *

champion:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

and

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

winner:

and

Uhrencup The Uhrencup is a club football tournament, held annually in Grenchen and Biel in Switzerland. The Uhrencup is seen as a testament to the major influence that is exercised by the local industry on the cultural lives of the areas residents. The tou ...

winner: 2011

References

External links

Profile at FC Basel

Profile at Swiss Football League Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Colomba, Massimo 1977 births Swiss men's footballers Swiss people of Italian descent Living people Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players FC Aarau players Grasshopper Club Zürich players FC Basel players Swiss Super League players Association football goalkeepers People from Sarine District Sportspeople from the canton of Fribourg