Nicola Ventola

Nicola Ventola
Personal information
Full name Nicola Ventola
Date of birth (1978-05-24) 24 May 1978
Place of birth Grumo Appula, Italy
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position Striker
Youth career
Bari
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1994–1998 Bari 44 (12)
1998–1999 Internazionale 21 (6)
1999–2000 Bologna 14 (0)
2000–2005 Internazionale 16 (4)
2000–2001 → Atalanta (loan) 28 (10)
2003–2004 → Siena (loan) 28 (4)
2004–2005 → Crystal Palace (loan) 3 (1)
2005–2007 Atalanta 64 (23)
2007–2009 Torino 35 (6)
2009–2011 Novara 26 (4)
National team
1996–2000 Italy U-21 / Olympic 1 (0)
1998 Italy

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 27 January 2011 (UTC).


Nicola Ventola (born 24 May 1978) is a retired Italian footballer who played as a forward. Ventola played for several clubs in Italy throughout his career, and also had a loan spell with English side Crystal Palace. At international level, he was a member of the Italian squad at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and made his only senior appearance for Italy in 1998. At youth level, he represented the Italy under-21 side, and was a member of the team that won the 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, also winning a gold medal at the 1997 Mediterranean Games with the under-23 side. He retired from football in February 2011.[1]

Club career

Born in Grumo Appula, Bari, Nicola Ventola's career began with Bari in 1994 as a youth player. He made his Serie A debut on 6 November 1994 against AC Fiorentina.[2] He left the club in 1998 after three more seasons (one in Serie B, winning the 1996–97 title, and two in Serie A), after scoring 12 goals in 45 appearances with the club (10 of which were scored in Serie B).[3]

Ventola signed for Internazionale during the 1998–99 season, making 21 appearances in the league, and scoring 6 goals, playing alongside other notable forwards, such as Ronaldo, Roberto Baggio, Zamorano, Andrea Pirlo, and Djorkaeff. During the season, he showed real star potential for his young age, scoring 11 goals in all competitions, as well as a goal against eventual European Cup winners Manchester United in the quarter-finals of the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League. However, exactly a year later he was signed on a co-ownership deal with Bologna (after Christian Vieri's £32 million transfer to Inter from Lazio) and later Atalanta during the next two seasons, in a swap deal with Corrado Colombo.[4] During his loan period with Bologna, he made 14 appearances in Serie A, without scoring a goal, although he managed 4 goals in 7 appearances in the 1999–2000 Coppa Italia and the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup. With Atalanta, he had a more successful league season, scoring 10 goals in 28 Serie A appearances during the 2000–01 season.[5]

Ventola returned to Inter in 2001 but, he suffered from several injuries that season, only making 16 appearances and scoring 4 goals, as Inter reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, and narrowly missed out on the Serie A title. The following season, he was not picked regularly for the first team, and he went on loan once again to Siena in 2003, where he made 28 appearances, scoring 4 goals during the 2003–04 season. English First Division side Crystal Palace signed him on transfer deadline day in August 2004 on a season-long loan but this was wrecked by injury and he only made a handful of appearances. He did however score against Southampton on the penultimate day of the season; in total he made 3 appearances and scored 1 goal during the 2004–05 season.[6]

In July 2005 Ventola signed a two-year contract with Atalanta, helping his team to win the 2005–06 Serie B title, scoring 15 goals in 35 appearances. He scored six goals in 29 games during the 2006–07 Serie A season, but he later became excluded from the club and his contract was not renewed.[2]

In June 2007 he joined Torino F.C. on a two-year contract.[7] With Torino, he made 21 appearances, scoring 4 goals during his first season; during his second season he received less playing time, scoring 2 goals in 14 appearances. In Torino's 3–1 home loss against Lazio, he replaced Sereni in goal, who had been sent off, as Torino had already made three substitutions, failing to stop a Mauro Zárate penalty.[8] At the end of the season, Torino were relegated to Serie B, and Ventola's contract was not renewed.[9]

Ventola subsequently moved to Lega Pro team Novara, making his debut for the team on 9 November 2009, in a 3–0 win over Lecco.[10] He scored his first goal on 17 January 2010, in a draw against Como. On 25 April, he scored a brace in a 3–3 draw against Cremonese, which allowed Novara to win promotion to Serie B. He retired on 27 January 2011 due to persisting physical problems.[11]

International career

Ventola made 21 appearances with the Italy Under-21 and Under-23 sides, scoring 8 goals, winning the 1997 Mediterranean Games and the 2000 UEFA Under-21 European Championship with the team; he also represented Italy at the 2000 Summer Olympics, where they were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the tournament. He made 1 appearance with the Italian senior side, making his debut in a 2–0 win against Switzerland at the Friuli Stadium in Udine, on 10 October 1998.[12]

Personal life

Ventola has a son, Kelian (b. 22 September 2003), with his wife, Brazilian model Kartika Luyet.[13][14] Erick Thohir, president of FC Internazionale, stated that Ventola is his all-time favorite Inter player.[15]

Honours

Club

Bari[16]
Atalanta[16]
Novara[16]

International

Italy[16]

References

  1. ↑ "Nicola Ventola finisce la carriera, ecco la storia di un talento puro" (in Italian). Panorama. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  2. 1 2 Di Chiara, Filippo (18 November 2005). "Io, Ventola rinato mille volte". gazzetta.it (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "VENTOLA NICOLA". Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  4. ↑ "ARRIVA IL GIOVANE COLOMBO DALL'ATALANTA" (in Italian). inter.it. 24 June 2000. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
  5. ↑ "Stelle Comete - Nicola Ventola" (in Italian). Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  6. ↑ "C Palace 2-2 Southampton". BBC. 7 May 2005. Retrieved 20 October 2009.
  7. ↑ "Toro seal triple swoop". football.co.uk. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
  8. ↑ "Lazio a valanga a Torino, il sogno continua" (in Italian). tuttomercatoweb.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  9. ↑ "UFFICIALE: Nicola Ventola firma con il Torino" (in Italian). tuttomercatoweb.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  10. ↑ "UFFICIALE: Novara, preso Ventola" (in Italian). tuttomercatoweb.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  11. ↑ "Nicola Ventola lascia la maglia Azzurra" (in Italian). Novara Calcio. 27 January 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  12. ↑ "Convocazioni e presenze in campo: Nicola Ventola" (in Italian). FIGC. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  13. ↑ calciomercato.it/news
  14. ↑ "Che fine ha fatto Nicola Ventola" (in Italian). Bergamo Post. 6 June 2015. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  15. ↑ "Inter, Thohir: "Il mio preferito? Ventola. E mio figlio tifa Juve"" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. 24 October 2013. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  16. 1 2 3 4 "Nicola Ventola" (in French). eurosport.fr. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
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