Fabio Grosso Biography
Summary
"Fabio Grosso", Cavaliere Ufficiale OMRI (born 28 November 1977 in San Giovanni Lipioni, Abruzzo) is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who plays for Serie A club Juventus, as well as for the Italian national team, primarily as a left-back. He is remembered around the world for scoring the dramatic late first goal against Germany in the 2006 World Cup semi-final, scoring the winning penalty in the shootout that won the trophy against France and for earning a late penalty against Australia in the last 16 through a controversial dive.
Club career
Fabio Grosso was born in Rome yet hails from Chieti in Abruzzo, where his family soon returned. After a number of seasons with Renato Curi Angolana, an amateur team of the Abruzzo Eccellenza division, Grosso debuted at professional level with Calcio Chieti of Serie C2. At the time, he was an attacking midfielder, and scored 17 goals in 68 appearances. He then joined Perugia of Serie A in 2001, and was first capped for Italy in 2003. At Perugia, he was transformed into a left back by coach Serse Cosmi. Grosso signed for Palermo in January 2004, when the Sicilian team was still playing in Serie B.
Grosso is a left wing back or left back, who can play also in the role of left wing. He is also a free kick and corner specialist.
Grosso joined Internazionale for a fee reported of ?5.5 million on 6 June 2006. On 8 July 2007, Grosso officially signed a four year deal with French team Olympique Lyonnais after passing a medical and agreeing personal terms. He was given the number 11 shirt.
Juventus
On August 31, 2009 it was confirmed that Fabio Grosso had returned to Serie A following his two year spell in France with Lyon. After chasing the defender all summer long a deal was met on the final day of the transfer market at a 2 million Euros plus bonus up to 1 million. He scored his first goal in a league game against Udinese in November 2009.
International career
Grosso was a member of the victorious Italian 2006 World Cup team. In the same tournament against Australia, Italy was awarded a controversial penalty in stoppage time after Australian defender Lucas Neill made an attempted sliding tackle which was considered an obstruction, however there remains controversy over whether Grosso played for the penalty or not. The penalty was converted by Francesco Totti, and consequently knocked Australia out of the World Cup. On 4 July 2006, he scored the first goal against Germany in the 119th minute with a curling right into back of the net from the edge of the box and famously ran around and screamed 'I don't believe it!' as his teammates celebrated. During the final on 9 July 2006, he scored the winning penalty against France, giving Italy their fourth World Cup.
Grosso was also included in Roberto Donadoni's European Cup team in 2008. Grosso is still the first choice left back in Marcello Lippi's "Azzurri" squad.
Personal life
Fabio Grosso is married to Jessica Repetto. They have a son Filippo who was born shortly after World Cup 2006.
Grosso studied political science and is fluent in French.
Honours
Clubs
Internazionale
"Serie A": 2007
"Coppa Italia" (runner-up): 2007
"Supercoppa Italiana": 2006
Lyon
"French Ligue 1 Championship": 2007-08
"French Cup": 2007-08
"French Super Cup": 2007
National team
"FIFA World Cup": 2006
External links
(FootballDatabase.com provides Grosso's profile and stats)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Fabio Grosso.
