Alessandro Nesta Biography

Alessandro Giovanni Faccutio Nesta born in Rome, Italy on March 19, 1976, better known as Alessandro Nesta, is an Italian former football player and current manager. He manages the Italian Serie B team Frosinone Calcio. He is considered by football fans to be one of the best central defenders of his time and also one of the greatest defenders in the history of football, renowned for his ability to take, hold and distribute the ball, as well as to strongly mark opponents.

Throughout his career, he has been honored with various decorations such as being included in the list of the world's greatest players (FIFA 100), the Golden Collar for Sports Merit given by the CONI (Italian National Olympic Committee) and the Official Knight's Award for Merit of the Italian Republic given by the President of the Italian Republic. He also received the Calcium Oscar as Best Defense in 4 occasions and many other awards.

As a football player, he played in the central defender position. He started his career as a professional at S.S. Lazio, where he was captain and obtained his first Scudetto, as well as 2 Italian Cups, 1 European Cup Winners' Cup, 2 Italian Super Cups and 1 European Super Cup. For the 2002-2003 season, he joined A.C. Milan achieving 2

, 1

, 2

, 2

, 2 European Super Cups and 1

.

His stay in A.C. Milan lasted until 2012, the year that Nesta argued that playing two games per week was too hard for someone of his age so he decided to go to the

and play for the Montreal Impact of Canada, with them he won the Canadian Soccer Championship.

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All You Need to Know About Alessandro Nesta Biography

In 2013, Nesta announced that he would retire from soccer at the end of the 2012-2013 MLS season, but his friend Marco Materazzi convinced him to continue playing for a while with Chennaiyin FC in India. In December 2014 and with a career spanning two decades, Nesta retired from soccer achieving a legacy as one of the greatest defenders of all time.

He was a member of the Italian national team for 11 years and played 78 official matches. He made his debut in the match between Moldavia and Italy (1-3) in the qualifiers for the 1998 World Cup in France. In 2006 he was crowned world champion, he was an undisputed starter from the very beginning although an injury in the third match of the group stage against the Czech Republic made him miss the rest of the World Cup. His last match with the Italian National Team was in Georgia-Italy (1-3) during the qualification for Euro 2008.

Alessandro Nesta Information

In this section of Alessandro Nesta biography, we will share some general information about him, such as

Alessandro Nesta nationality

, so you can get to know him better.

Alessandro Nesta Bio

• Full Name: Alessandro Giovanni Faccutio Nesta

• Nickname: Sandro

• Profession: Professional Footballer

Alessandro Nesta Physical Stats

• Weight: 82 Kg

• Height:  1.87 m

• Eye Color: Dark Brown

• Hair Color: Black

Alessandro Nesta Football Information

• Position: Defender

• Jersey Number: 13

• Professional Debut: 1993

Alessandro Nesta Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 19 March 1976

• Birth Place: Rome, Italy

• Zodiac Sign: Pisces

• Nationality: Italian

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Alessandro Nesta biography

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Alessandro Nesta Early Life

Alessandro Nesta was born on March 19, 1976, to the family of Giuseppe Nesta, a railroad worker, and Maria, a housewife. At his birth, the boy weighed 4.1 kg. Most of

Alessandro Nesta childhood

time was spent at Rome, his hometown. Alessandro also had a brother Fernando. In September 1984, Alessandro with his father and brother went to the medical clinic. During the examination, it turned out that Fernando had some back problems and, to correct his body posture, the doctors advised him to start playing sports.

Fernando preferred football and his father sent him to a football club. Alessandro asked his father to join the football team with Fernando. His father didn't object and that is how Alessandro started his football training. Stay tuned to read more about

Alessandro Nesta life story

.

Alessandro Nesta Profile

Discovered at the age of 13 by Lazio, he quickly climbed the ladder to professional football, winning the junior championship in 1990. In 1992 he was selected for the Italian national under-16 team. Two years later, on 13 March 1994, Dino Zoff brought him to play his first Serie A match against Udinese. From the following season, he gradually joined the Lazio squad, under the management of Zdenek Zeman.

He quickly made a name for himself in the Italian league with his defensive skills and was picked for the national team. At the same time, Lazio, reinforced in the 1990s by players such as Pavel Nedved and was a growing club. Nesta was promoted to Lazio captain after a few seasons. He won the Italian Cup (1998 and 2000), the former UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1999), the UEFA Supercup (1999) and the Scudetto (2000), during the best period in the history of the Lazio.

But as the 2001-2002 season came to an end, Lazio, heavily in debt following its numerous player signings in the 1990s, was forced to sell off their best players. Nesta then joined Lombardy and the AC Milan club, where Paolo Maldini was playing, who already identified him as his successor.

AC Milan

On 31 August 2002, Alessandro Nesta joined AC Milan, for a fee of 31 million euros. He played his first match under his new club on 14 September 2002, during a league match against Modena FC. The Milans won by 3-0 on that day.

In Milan, he won several titles: Champions League twice, Italian Cup, UEFA Super Cup (2003), Club World Cup (2007), and again the Scudetto in 2004. Together with Paolo Maldini, Jaap Stam and Cafu, the Milan defence was the best in the 2004-2005 season, but this didn't prevent a double failure: the 2005 Champions League final defeat against Liverpool and, a few days earlier, a home defeat against

.

In the 2006-2007 season following the Italian league scandal, Milan served an eight-point penalty that was deducted at the start of the season. The club finished 4th in the league and returned to the Champions League. In the Champions League, Nesta showed that he didn't lose any of his qualities, notably by making a spectacular comeback in the quarter-final second leg against

and by showing himself superior against Manchester United strikers Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney in their semi-final two matches. A few weeks later,

beat

2-1 in Athens to win their seventh Champions League.

In 2008, he announced that he would be playing for Italy again in his last world cup match (which in the end was not the case). He said he wanted to conclude his career with Milan and play until the age of 35 or 36, like Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi as well as Alessandro Costacurta.

In July 2008, Alessandro Nesta suffered a number of recurring back injuries, which turned his 2008-2009 season into an absolute disaster where he played only the last minutes of the final decisive match against AC Fiorentina for third place in the Serie A.

In the 2009-2010 season, after having finally cured his injury, Nesta returned to his best form and started as a key central defender alongside Thiago Silva. This highly effective duo proved to be one of the highlights of the 2010-2011 season for AC Milan, which saw the club return to the forefront of Italian football by winning the Italian Serie A for the first time since 2004.

On 10 May 2012, the player announced that it was his last season with AC Milan as he felt he could no longer keep up with the high pace of Serie A and the Champions League, where it is necessary to have a very good physical freshness. He added that continuing at these levels and not being fit enough would be disrespectful to the club.

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Montreal Impact

On July 3, 2012, he reached an agreement with the Montreal Impact and joined his friend Marco Di Vaio in there. He made his debut under his new team colours in a friendly match against Olympique Lyonnais on July 24, 2012.

On May 29, 2013, he won his first trophy in North America, the Canadian Championship. He was the starting player in the second leg of the final match against the Vancouver Whitecaps.

On October 20, 2013, he officially retired from the world of football at the end of the MLS season with the Montreal Impact at the age of 37. Finally, he did not play in the last game of the regular season against rival Toronto FC and was not selected in the squad to face Houston Dynamo in the first round of the 2013 Major League Soccer playoffs due to a minor injury.

Eager to become a coach, Nesta became a technical consultant for the Montreal Impact on February 27, 2014.

Chennaiyin

On 28th November 2014, it was announced that Alessandro Nesta had signed for Chennaiyin FC in the Indian Super League for the rest of the 2014 season. He agreed to join the club with the request of his former teammate and coach Marco Materazzi, who was facing shortages of defensive players due to injuries, in the final stretch of the tournament.

He made his debut on 9 December with a 2-2 draw against FC Dynamos Delhi, in partnership with Mikael Silvestre in the defence. Stay tuned to read more about

Alessandro Nesta biography

and his

career.

Italy National Team

At the 1996 European Under-21 Championship, Nesta won the title with the Italian side coached by Cesare Maldini and was named the tournament's best defender.

This was followed shortly afterwards by his participation in the European Championship in

, this time with the senior national team. Nesta, who had not yet played a senior match, was called up to the European Championship squad by Arrigo Sacchi but did not play in the tournament. He finally made his debut under Cesare Maldini against Moldova on 5 October 1996.

In 1998, Alessandro Nesta took part in the World Cup in

with Italy. He ruptured his cruciate ligament in the third group match against Austria and was out of action for months. He then took part in the 2000 European Championship, where he was named in the UEFA All-Star Team and was runner-up in the European Championship. Nesta was also in the squad for the 2002 World Cup and the 2004 European Championship.

At the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Nesta injured himself in the third group match against the Czech Republic after a strong performance and was not fit again until the final. Winning the World Cup represents his greatest success with the national team.

At the beginning of August 2007, only two weeks after Francesco Totti's retirement, Nesta also announced that he would no longer want to play for Italy. He cited the double burden of the club and international matches as the reason, but there was speculation that disputes between him and national coach Roberto Donadoni were the real reasons for his resignation. The 3-1 victory over Georgia on 11 October 2006 was Nesta's last international match.

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Managerial Career

On 31 August 2015, Nesta was introduced as the head coach of the newly formed Miami team, which began playing in the North American Football League in April 2016. Nesta's club finished seventh in his debut season. In the 2017 season, under his leadership, the club finished at the top of the standings in both the spring and autumn league standings, but lost the playoffs in the semi-finals, losing to the New York Cosmos in a penalty shootout 6-5 after a goalless draw. Nesta left Miami on 17 November 2017.

On 14 May 2018, Nesta took charge of Serie B club Perugia. Four days later, on his first match, he lost the last Serie B match to Empoli 1-2, nevertheless, the team had already secured a promotion play-off spot. On 3 June, Perugia lost 3-0 to Venice and was eliminated from the play-offs. Nesta secured his first win at the club on 2 September 2018 in the Red and White's home game against Ascoli; in that game, Nesta was sent off for arguing with the referee. The team ended up in ninth place, one point off the play-off zone for promotion, but

did enter the play-offs thanks to a suspension on Palermo. On 18 May, Perugia lost to Hellas Verona (1-4) in the first round, eliminating them from the play-offs and Nesta was sacked.

On 17 June 2019, Nesta was appointed head coach of

. At his first season with the club, Nesta’s side finished 8th in Serie B and reached play-offs. This time Nesta guided his team all the way to final against Spezia. After a 1-1 draw, they failed to win promotion because Spezia had performed better than them throughout the season.

Style of Play

Nesta was a versatile defender who was a key player for his teams both at the club and national level. He was considered by many as one of the best and most talented defenders of his generation and of all time. Despite his strong and large physique, he was also an extremely nimble and athletic player, with good command of the ball, the vision of the field and an accurate pass that allowed him to get the ball out of defence and start an attack. Nesta has been compared to former AC Milan captain Franco Baresi in terms of his playing ability.

Although he usually played at the centre-back position during his career, he started his football as a right-back. His technical skills, athleticism and defensive skills made him a versatile player from a tactical point of view, who was capable of playing anywhere on the defensive line. Nesta also played well with his head and was unusually quick as a central defender; he often stood out throughout his career for his sharpness, acceleration and stamina.

In addition to his technical and physical abilities, Nesta possessed good positional and tactical flair, as well as the ability to read the game, which allowed him to anticipate opponents' actions, win individual fights and thwart opposing attacks. His football intelligence allowed him to maintain a consistently high level of play even towards the end of his career when he began to lose his sharpness and stamina.

His ability to be a defensive leader and organise his teammates enabled him to play well in zone defence as well as personally against opponents. He played well in rebounding and was known for his accurate tackling. At the same time, Nesta often had problems due to injuries, which in particular prevented him from playing in the play-off stages of all three World Cups in which he participated.

Reception

After starting his career as a full-back, Nesta established himself as one of the strongest and most complete central defenders of his generation. He was known for his skills, like speed, strength, vision and his ability in the air that made him a versatile footballer. He is considered to be amongst the best defenders in the history of football.

Goal Celebration

During his career as a defender, Alessandro Nesta has only scored 13 goals. Given this and the fact that he never had a signature goal celebration, there is no unique Alessandro Nesta goal celebration to address here.

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Alessandro Nesta outside Football

Nesta has starred in the 1998 Italian film, Paparazzi directed by Neri Parenti, and was also on the cover of Sony Interactive Entertainment's Italian edition, This Is Football. Nesta has also appeared in the KONAMI football video game saga as well as FIFA, where he was included in the FIFA 16 Ultimate Team Legends alongside the likes of George Best, Deco, Gattuso, Ryan Giggs and others.

Alessandro Nesta Personal Life

In this section of Alessandro Nesta biography, we want to take a look at his personal life and share some information about his family, including his wife and children and also

Alessandro Nesta religion

. So stay tuned to get to know him better.

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Family, Children and Relationships

Alessandro Nesta celebrated his marriage to Gabriele Pianozzi on 7 May 2007 and the couple had their religious celebration on 30 May. Gabriele was employed at Casa Italia, the Italian national team's headquarters, throughout the 1998 World Cup in France. Their relationship began when she was nursing Nesta back to full fitness following an injury in a match against Austria in the World Cup.

Nesta himself has described the encounter with his wife as follows: "I can say that I got the injury and my wife in

. Then the injury went away, but she stayed with me". The couple has three children, Sofia (born 19.10.2006), Tommaso (born 20.03.2008) and Angelique (born 19.12.2013).

This legendary Italian footballer is one of those who do not like interference in his private life from the press.

Philanthropy

There is not much information about Alessandro Nesta’s charitable works on the media, however, he had participated in some fundraisers for the American Cancer Society while he was the manager of the American side Miami FC.

Legal Issues

Alessandro Nesta is amongst the football players with a clean record and there is nothing about his legal issues on media. Stay tuned to read more about

Alessandro Nesta biography

and his career stats.

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Alessandro Nesta Career Statistics

In this section of Alessandro Nesta biography, we want to take a look at his club, international and managerial stats. Stay tuned.

Club

As a professional footballer, Alessandro Nesta has played a rather lengthy career of 22 years between 1993 and 2015. His career started at

in 1993, where he played for 9 seasons there, appearing on 261 matches in all competitions and scoring 3 goals.

After moving to AC Milan in 2002, he managed to play there for 10 seasons, establishing himself as one of the club legends and best defenders ever. During his time at Milan, he played a total of 326 matches in all competitions and he scored 10 goals.

His two-season spell at Montreal Impact saw him play 34 matches for them. He never scored a goal for the Canadian club. During his career, he has played 624 club matches and scored 13 goals.

International

At the international level with Italy, Alessandro Nesta has played 78 matches in a 10-years long career. Some believe that he retired very early from Italy national team because of Donadoni, his manager at the national team at the time, and he could’ve played for a few years more. He has never scored a goal for Italy.

Managerial

During his managerial career, Alessandro Nesta has so far managed three teams, including Miami FC, Perugia and Frosinone. Since the start of his tenure at Miami FC in August of 2015 until now, his teams have played 173 matches, winning 75, drawing 41 and losing 57 one them. His overall winning percentage is %43.35 which is average.

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Alessandro Nesta Honors

Nesta has many honors and titles to his name as a player, which most notable of them include Seria A (3 times), Coppa Italia (3 times), UEFA Champions League (2 times) and FIFA Club World Cup.

At the international level, he has won the UEFA Under-21 European Championship with Italy U-21, however, his biggest honor at this level is the 2006 World Cup win with Italy.

The only honor in his managerial career was when his Miami FC side won the 2017 North American Soccer League Spring/Fall.

Of his notable individual honors and awards we can include Serie A Young Footballer of the Year in 1998, Serie A Defender of the Year (4 times), Serie A Team of the Year in 2010–11, UEFA Team of the Year (4 times) and being included in FIFA 100.

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