Salvatore Bocchetti (; born 30 November 1986) is an Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former player who is the assistant coach of club

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

. He played 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 ...

as a player.

Club career

Bocchetti started his professional career at

Ascoli Ascoli may refer to: Places in Italy *Ascoli Satriano, a town and ''comune'' in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region *Province of Ascoli Piceno, a province of the Marche region **Ascoli Piceno, a city which is the seat of the province above ...

. 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 against Palermo on 20 December 2006. He was sent on loan to Serie C1 for

Lanciano Lanciano (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Langiàne ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Chieti, part of the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It has 36,304 inhabitants as of 2011. The town is known for the first recorded Catholic Eucharistic ...

, and

Frosinone Frosinone (, local dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of the Va ...

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 ...

on second half of 2006–07 season. In the 2008–09 season Bocchetti was signed 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 ...

and soon became a regular starter in central defence, also functioning as a fullback on occasion. In the 2010–2011 season he was signed by

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (russian: Футбо́льный клуб Руби́н Каза́нь, ''Futbolny klub Rubin Kazan'' , Tatar: Рубин Казан) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the second-tier ...

on a 3.5-year contract with a fee reported to be around €15 million for the transfer. On 2 October 2011 Bocchetti scored two goals in a league match against Tom Tomsk. Kazan won the game 2–0. In January 2013, he moved to

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * WB ...

, another

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

club. In August 2013, he received a knee surgery and missed the rest of the season. On 27 January 2015,

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 ...

had signed him on loan with an option to make the move permanent at the end of the season. He was released from his Spartak contract by mutual consent on 6 July 2019. On 25 July 2019, Bocchetti signed to Italian

club

a 2-years contract. On 29 September 2020, Bocchetti joined

club

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 ...

on loan until 30 June 2021.

International career

In March 2008, Bocchetti made his debut with the Italy U-21 squad. He established himself in

Pierluigi Casiraghi Pierluigi Casiraghi (; born 4 March 1969) is an Italian professional football coach and former player who played as a striker. Casiraghi began his playing career in Italy in 1985, with Monza. He later played for Juventus, and Lazio, before end ...

's ''Azzurrini'' squad which won the 2008 Toulon Tournament, and retained his place in the starting line up for the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

, as Italy reached the quarter-finals. Together with

Marco Andreolli Marco Giancarlo Andreolli (born 10 June 1986) is a retired Italian professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Club career Padova and Internazionale Andreolli began playing with Padova's youth system before being signed by Inter in 20 ...

, he was first-choice in central defence during the 2009 U-21 European Championship as Italy reached the semi-finals; he was later named to the team of the tournament. On 22 March 2009, Bocchetti received his first call up to the senior Italy squad for two

World Cup qualifiers The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

matches but remained an unused substitute. On 10 October 2009 he made his senior

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

international debut against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

coming on as a second-half substitute in

Croke Park Croke Park ( ga, Páirc an Chrócaigh, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and he ...

. He was named in Marcello Lippi's 23-men squad for the

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

. Bocchetti was also selected for Italy's preliminary squad for

Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

, but was not picked for the final squad.

Style of play

Bocchetti has been described as a versatile, left-footed

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 ...

, who is also capable of being deployed as a full back. He is known for his strength, pace, and anticipation, as well for his reliable technical ability.

Coaching career

Following his retirement from active football, Bocchetti took on a career as a coach, rejoining

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

in July 2021 as a youth coach in charge of the Under-18 team. He left his role later in September 2021 to join Igor Tudor's first team coaching staff as an assistant, and also taking Tudor's place for a single Serie A league game 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 ...

on 30 April 2022 as Tudor himself was disqualified. Following Tudor's departure and the appointment of

Gabriele Cioffi Gabriele Cioffi (born 7 September 1975) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. He is the head coach of Serie A club Udinese. Playing career As a player, Cioffi was a defender. He started his care ...

as new head coach, Bocchetti was then handed over the duties of the Under-19 team for the 2022–23 season. In September 2022, he obtained a UEFA A license. On 13 October 2022, he was promoted head coach of Verona, replacing Gabriele Cioffi. As Bocchetti had no UEFA Pro license at the time of his appointment, Verona had to ask the Italian Football Federation to hand him a temporary authorization, which was handed for a period of 30 days. He guided Verona formally as head coach for a total six games, all of them ending with defeat. On 3 December 2022, after his temporary authorization to coach the ''Gialloblu'' expired, Verona announced the appointment of Marco Zaffaroni as new head coach, with Bocchetti as his assistant.

Personal life

Bocchetti is married to Ekaterina Maltseva, a Russian woman he met during his time at Spartak, and has three children. He is fluent in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

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and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Career statistics

Notes

International

Managerial statistics

Honours

Club

Rubin Kazan * Russian Cup: 2011–12 *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Russian Cup winners. If the Premie ...

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 ...

Spartak Moscow *

: 2016–17 *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

International

Italy U-21 *

Toulon Tournament The Toulon Tournament (officially the Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) is a football (training match) tournament, which traditionally features invited national teams composed of youth players from U-17 to U-23 level. ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Individual

* 2009 UEFA European under-21 Championship Team of the Tournament

References

External links

Profile
on

official website
Profile
on

FIGC The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It ...

website
OFFICIAL: Rubin Kazan Sign Salvatore Bocchetti From Genoa
Goal.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Bocchetti, Salvatore Living people 1986 births Footballers from Naples Association football central defenders Italian footballers Ascoli Calcio 1898 F.C. players S.S. Virtus Lanciano 1924 players Frosinone Calcio players Genoa C.F.C. players FC Rubin Kazan players FC Spartak Moscow players Hellas Verona F.C. players Delfino Pescara 1936 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Russian Premier League players Italy under-21 international footballers Italy youth international footballers Olympic footballers of Italy Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Italy international footballers 2010 FIFA World Cup players Italian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Russia Italian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Italian football managers Hellas Verona F.C. managers Serie A managers