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

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

/ Italian former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who is currently the assistant coach for the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March 18, ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

. 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 University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

. 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 Association football, soccer league, currently featuring teams from British Columbia. In the past, clubs from Washington (state), Washington and Oregon have competed. The Pacific Coast Soccer Leagu ...

for Whitecaps FC Reserves with whom he won the championship.

Blackpool

After having trials in Italy with Reggina and

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

, he had trials in England with

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

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 The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

club

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1887, ...

on 22 November until 1 January 2008. Blackpool manager,

Simon Grayson Simon Nicholas Grayson (born 16 December 1969) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who is head coach of National League (division), National League club Hartlepool ...

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 are a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ...

. 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 , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...

. 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 who is an assistant coach at club Derby County. He made most of his appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers. A former Chelsea youth team player, he ...

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

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) 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 chose ...

" 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 Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

, when he would return to

Bloomfield Road Bloomfield Road is a association football, football stadium in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Blackpool F.C., Blackpool Football Club since 1901. It is the third stadium in the club's existence, the previous two be ...

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 when i ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

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

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, Congo and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

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

Honours

* Whitecaps FC Reserves **

champion (1):

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

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 21st-century Canadian sportsmen