Mattia Viti (born 24 January 2002) 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 le ...

who plays as a

centre-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 ...

or left-back for club

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 loan from club

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

Early life

Born in Borgo San Lorenzo, in the province of Florence, Mattia Viti already played football at the age of 4, with the club of Ponte a Greve—that would later merge with Rondinella Marzocco—in the Tuscan capital. Having moved to the nearby Audace Legnaia, he joined the Empoli academy as an 8-year-old, in 2010.

Club career

Empoli

After a full 2019–20 season with the Primavera, Viti made his professional debut on the 30 September 2020, starting a 2–1

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 ...

win against Renate. He played his first

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 ...

game with

on the 9 April 2021, replacing

Nedim Bajrami Nedim Bajrami (born 28 February 1999) is a professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Italian football club Sassuolo. Born and raised in Switzerland to ethnic Albanian parents from Tetovo, Bajrami represented the ...

in a 1–0 away win 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 ...

, already proving to be decisive with a late minute goal line clearance. His side eventually won the championship, making their come-back in Italy's top flight, while the Primavera squad also won their championship. On 22 September 2021 he made 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 2–0 away victory against

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

, with

Aurelio Andreazzoli Aurelio Andreazzoli (born 5 November 1953) is an Italian football coach. He is currently the head coach of club Ternana. Career In 2005, Andreazzoli joined Roma to become head coach Luciano Spalletti's assistant coach, becoming a valuable p ...

making him start and finish the game, as the youngster proved to be instrumental in keeping a clean sheet for the ''Azzurri''. During the following months—despite having to face the loss of his mother in November 2021—he became a regular with the first team, alternating with Sebastiano Luperto or the veterans

Tonelli Tonelli may refer to: * Tonelli (surname) Arts * ''Tonelli'' (film), a 1943 German film Science * Tonelli's theorem (functional analysis) * Tonelli's theorem * Tonelli–Shanks algorithm The Tonelli–Shanks algorithm (referred to by Shanks ...

and Romagnoli. He was a starter for several important

wins, against the likes of

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= 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 150 different nat ...

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; egl, label=Modenese dialect, Modenese, Sasól ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town ...

or Udinese, appearing as one of the Italian championship most promising young defenders.

Nice

On 3 August 2022, Viti joined

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

side

on a permanent deal for an undisclosed fee, believed to be in the region of €13 million.

Loan to Sassuolo

On 12 July 2023,

side

announced the signing of Viti on a season-long

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

with a future option to buy.

Return to Empoli on loan

On 22 July 2024, Viti returned to Empoli, signing on loan until the end of the 2024–25 season, with an option to make the deal permanent.

International career

Viti is a youth international for Italy, having played at under-15, under-16 and under-18 levels. In September 2021, he was selected with the

under-20 Junior is a category of athletics in which athletes compete under the age of 20 years. Countries all around the world compete in athletics. World Junior Athletics Competitions are held every two years which contain the best junior competitors in ...

, making his debut during a 1–0 away friendly win against Serbia on the 6 September and becoming a regular starter for the team in November, before being promoted to the under-21 side, where he was however forced to withdraw due to injury.

Style of play

A left-footed

with a good physical presence, he is seen as a technically gifted defender, able to launch offensive movements from the back, who doesn't hesitate to take risks and dribble to move froward. Proactive in putting pressure on the opponent, he has a good discipline—not having received a single card during his first six months in Serie A—but still does his far share of defensive tasks, as he was for example among the top 1% of centre-backs in the top 5 European leagues in therms of blocks, halfway through his first Serie A season. Very soon compared to former

star Daniele Rugani, his profile is often associated with the one of

Alessandro Bastoni Alessandro Bastoni (born 13 April 1999) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Inter and the Italy national team. Early career Bastoni was born in Casalmaggiore, Lombardy, and began his career in the local R ...

. He cites

Sergio Ramos Sergio Ramos García (; born 30 March 1986) is a Spanish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Paris Saint-Germain and the Spain national football team, Spain nationa ...

and Paolo Maldini as his main inspirations as a player.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Empoli *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Viti, Mattia 2002 births People from Borgo San Lorenzo Footballers from the Metropolitan City of Florence Living people Italian men's footballers Italy men's youth international footballers Men's association football central defenders Empoli FC players OGC Nice players US Sassuolo Calcio players Serie A players Serie B players Ligue 1 players Italian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Italian expatriate sportspeople in France