Rodney Strasser (born 30 March 1990) is a Sierra Leonean 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
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
Milan
Born in
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...
, Strasser began his career at local club
Kallon, before moving to Italy to join
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
in 2007.
During his time in Milan's youth system, he was a member of the
under-20 side, who won the 2009–10
Coppa Italia Primavera
The Coppa Italia Primavera (Italian for Spring Italian Cup) is an Italian football competition played by youth teams from Campionato Primavera. All players are under 20 of age. The first edition was held in the 1972–73 season.
Due to sponsorshi ...
. He made his first-team debut on 21 December 2008, in a 5–1 win against
Udinese, coming on as a substitute for
Kakha Kaladze
Kakhaber "Kakha" Kaladze ( ka, კახაბერ (კახა) კალაძე, ; born 27 February 1978) is a Georgian politician and former footballer who serves as the Mayor of Tbilisi since November 2017. A versatile player, he was c ...
in the 82nd minute.
Genoa
On 20 July 2010, Milan announced that
half of the rights to Strasser had been purchased by
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
for €2.25 million, as part of the deal that saw defender
Sokratis Papastathopoulos
Sokratis Papastathopoulos ( el, Σωκράτης Παπασταθόπουλος; born 7 June 1988), commonly known mononymously as Sokratis, is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Super League club Olympiacos.
Club ca ...
move to Milan. Strasser, however, would stay at Milan on loan, joining the first-team squad permanently. His first appearance of the season was in a
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 ...
group stage 2–0 win against
Auxerre – which also marked his debut in European club competition – on 23 November. He went on to score his first professional goal in a 1–0
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 ...
win over
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 ...
, on 6 January.
Milan return
In May 2011, his co-ownership was dissolved in favour of Milan for the same price and renewed his contract to June 2016. (with Papastathopoulos moved back to Genoa), but Strasser subsequently joined
Lecce
Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...
on loan. He appeared in 13 games and scored one goal for his new team, before suffering a broken ankle in a game against
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 ...
on 9 January and subsequently being called back to Milan to undergo rehabilitation. He made his return on 10 April, coming on as a substitute in the second half of a game against
Chievo, which Milan won 1–0. At the start of the following season, Strasser sustained another injury which would rule him out for three months. After recovering he struggled to get playing time, making only one Coppa Italia appearance before being loaned out to
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 ...
during the January transfer window.
Genoa return
On 27 July 2013, Strasser joined Genoa on a permanent deal for €3.5 million, as part of
Kévin Constant's
co-ownership resolution in favour of Milan for €6 million. Strasser 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 ...
team
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 ...
in August 2013. As of January 2019, Strasser played for the Serie D team Villafranc
International career
Strasser made his international debut for the
Sierra Leone national football team, Sierra Leone national team on 5 September 2010, in a
2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualification
This page details the process of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualification phase. Forty-six African nations, including hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, entered the competition. Gabon and Equatorial Guinea automatically qualified as host count ...
game against
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
.
Career statistics
Club
.
1European competitions include the 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 ...
and the UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...
.
2Other tournaments include none to date.
International
.
Honours
;Milan
*
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 ...
:
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 ...
References
External links
*
Rodney Strasserat aic.football.it
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strasser, Rodney
1990 births
Living people
Sierra Leone Creole people
Sportspeople from Freetown
Sierra Leonean footballers
Sierra Leonean expatriate footballers
Sierra Leone international footballers
A.C. Milan players
U.S. Lecce players
Parma Calcio 1913 players
Genoa C.F.C. players
Reggina 1914 players
S.S. Racing Club Roma players
NK Zagreb players
Gil Vicente F.C. players
A.S.D. Villafranca players
Turun Palloseura footballers
Serie A players
Serie B players
Serie C players
Serie D players
Croatian Football League players
Liga Portugal 2 players
Veikkausliiga players
Sierra Leonean expatriate sportspeople in Italy
Sierra Leonean expatriate sportspeople in Finland
Sierra Leonean expatriate sportspeople in Portugal
Expatriate footballers in Italy
Expatriate footballers in Croatia
Expatriate footballers in Finland
Expatriate footballers in Portugal
Association football midfielders