Max Tonetto (; born 18 November 1974) is a retired Italian

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 ...

who played 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 ...

. A versatile naturally left-footed player, his preferred position was on the left flank in midfield, although he was often used as a

left-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 ...

, and could also play as a left wing-back. He played for several Italian clubs throughout his career, most notably Roma, where he won consecutive

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 ...

titles in 2007 and 2008 during his four seasons with the team.

Club career

Tonetto was born in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

. In 2000, Tonetto's career came to a shift when he moved to Lecce, where he became team captain in 2003. From 2004 to 2006, he enjoyed great success at

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 Cop ...

side

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

, where he got his first taste of European football in 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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

. After the end of his contract with Sampdoria, he signed a two-year deal with Roma. He has played more than 300 Serie A games. In his first season with Roma he showed good performances as a left-back. Although in his thirties, Tonetto is still, despite injuries, able to produce great and outstanding performances. Tonetto scored his first goal for A.S Roma during a match against Empoli in the 2007–08 season, by completing

Francesco Totti Francesco Totti (; born 27 September 1976) is an Italian former professional footballer who played solely for Roma and the Italy national team. He is often referred to as ''Er Bimbo de Oro'' (The Golden Boy), ''L'Ottavo Re di Roma'' (The Eig ...

's pass and scoring a wonderful goal. In November 2007, he signed a new contract with Roma which would last until 30 June 2010. On 11 March 2009, he blasted Roma's eighth and final penalty into the stands in the shootout against Arsenal, which meant Roma were knocked out of the Champions League, failing to progress to the quarter finals. His contract with Roma expired 30 June 2010, and he subsequently retired from professional football.

International career

Tonetto won his one and only cap for Italy against the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

in a

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

match for

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

Honours

Roma *

: 2006–07, 2007–08 * Supercoppa Italiana: 2007

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tonetto, Max 1974 births Living people Footballers from Trieste Men's association football fullbacks Italian men's footballers Italy men's international footballers Alma Juventus Fano 1906 players AC Reggiana 1919 players Ravenna FC players Empoli FC players AC Milan players Bologna FC 1909 players US Lecce players UC Sampdoria players AS Roma players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players