Michael D'Agostino (born 7 January 1987) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

/ Italian former soccer player who is currently the assistant coach for the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on Mar ...

of Major League Soccer. He has represented the Canadian National Soccer Team from the U-15 to U23 Levels Under-20 levels for Canada.

Background

D'Agostino was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and holds both Canadian and Italian Citizenship. After highschool, he was offered a full scholarship to the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

. In 2005, he was the Wildcats' leading scorer with three goals and eleven assists. During his youth and university years he was named to the All-Conference Team 3 years running..

Club career

Early career

In 2006 D'Agostino played in the

Pacific Coast Soccer League The Pacific Coast Soccer League is an amateur soccer league, currently featuring teams from British Columbia. In the past clubs from Washington and Oregon have competed. PCSL is considered to be British Columbia's premier summer league. The ...

for

Whitecaps FC Reserves Whitecap is the sea foam crest over the wind waves, waves. As of popular culture, Whitecaps may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * Whitecaps (The Sopranos), "Whitecaps" (''The Sopranos''), episode 52 of the television series ''The Sopranos' ...

with whom he won

the championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

Blackpool

After having trials in Italy with

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 n ...

and Messina, he had trials in England with

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

and then Blackpool where he played in a Reserves match. D'Agostino signed a one-year contract in September 2007 with Blackpool with an option for an additional year. On 4 October 2007, Blackpool received international clearance for him to play for the club.

Loan move to Cheltenham Town

After playing a few games for the Blackpool reserves team, Blackpool sent D'Agostino on loan to Football League One club

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league sy ...

on 22 November until 1 January 2008. Blackpool manager,

Simon Grayson Simon Nicholas Grayson (born 16 December 1969) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Indian Super League club Bengaluru. As a player, he was a right back, but he was also utilised in ...

said of the move, "This is a great opportunity for the lad to go and play some first team matches and we will be monitoring his progress closely." D'Agostino went straight into the Cheltenham squad for their home match against

on 25 November. He was an unused substitute in the match, which Cheltenham won 1–0. Following three substitute appearances, D'Agostino made his full debut for the club on 29 December in a 1–0 away defeat to

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

. On 31 December his loan deal was extended by a further four weeks. On 2 January 2008 he made his home debut for the club in a 1–0 win against

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

. D'Agostino combined with Steven Gillespie to set up Paul Connor to score Cheltenham's goal. He received praise from the club's manager,

Keith Downing Keith Gordon Downing (born 23 July 1965) is an English former footballer and football manager. He made the vast majority of his appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers. A former Chelsea youth team player, he moved from Mile Oak Rovers into the ...

, who said he had a "terrific home debut", D'Agostino won the "

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

" award. The club's fans nicknamed him "Daggers" and his loan spell was due to end following the 1–0 home defeat to

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

on 29 January. However, Cheltenham had already confirmed that they would try and extend the loan period further, and Blackpool manager Simon Grayson confirmed that the club were willing to extend the loan period by a further four weeks. His loan deal was extended by a further four weeks. Then on 31 January Blackpool agreed to extend the loan period until the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

, when he would return to

Bloomfield Road Bloomfield Road is a single-tier football stadium in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901. It is the third stadium in the club's existence, the previous two being Raikes Hall Gardens and the At ...

and Blackpool expected to activate the one-year contract extension. Keith Downing said of the deal, "Hopefully they (Blackpool) are pleased with the progress Michael has made with us as we are helping him develop as a player as well." Simon Grayson added "Michael has done well. We will keep a regular check on his progress and next season I would imagine he will be in and around our squad."

Return to Blackpool

After returning to Blackpool, on 7 May 2008 Blackpool activated an option to extend his contract with the club by one year. On 16 December 2008 he was released by Blackpool.

Hereford United

On 20 February 2009, after a short trial, D'Agostino joined League One club

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

on an initial one-month contract. D'Agostino never played a competitive match for Hereford, featuring as an unused substitute five times.

ICSF INTER

It was reported that Michael returned to Canada from England and signed with ICSF Inter of the VMSL for the 2010 season.

International career

In 2003 D'Agostino played for the Canadian Under 15 team in a tour of Germany. He was a member of the Canada U-20s that competed in the

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

in 2007 which took place in Canada. Canada lost all three of its matches in the group stage, to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, Congo and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. D'Agostino played in just the one match against Austria. He has fourteen caps for the Canadian Under 20 team.

Honours

champion (1): 2006

References

External links

*
Blackpool FC profileCanada Soccer ProfileInterview with BBC Gloucestershire, 23 November 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Agostino, Michael Living people 1987 births Blackpool F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Expatriate men's footballers in England Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Canadian men's soccer players Canadian sportspeople of Italian descent Cheltenham Town F.C. players Kentucky Wildcats men's soccer players Soccer players from Vancouver University of Kentucky alumni Sportfreunde Siegen players English Football League players Canada men's youth international soccer players Men's association football midfielders Canadian expatriate sportspeople in England Vancouver Whitecaps FC non-playing staff