I started very young playing in the national football team with the Under-15 team, winning a European Championship with the under-19 national team, up to the senior one, where I started playing at the age of 20, on November 17, 2004, during the Italy-Finland match (1-0), under the guidance of our coach Marcello Lippi.
I took part in the Under-21 Championship in 2006 and 2007, where I wore the captain's armband and scored 2 goals. I finish my adventure with the Under-21 in 2007 with 26 appearances and 6 goals. I was capped for the Beijing Olympics that, unfortunately, I could not attend because of the preliminaries of the Champions League.
On November 21, 2007, during the game against the Faroe Islands, I scored my first international goal with a powerful left-kick from outside the area.
In 2008 I was one of the 23 players capped by coach Donadoni for the Euro 2008 where, from the second match of the round on, that was Italy-Romania (1-1) on June 13, I started playing in the central defence together with Panucci.
I played as a regular player also against France and Spain, helping to maintain inviolate our National goal... unfortunately, that time, the penalty kicks against Spain penalized us.
In 2009 I played for the Confederation Cup in South Africa. The results of our “Italy” have been less exciting, but personally I feel it was a great experience to me, and useful to me and my team-mates.
I am currently engaged for the latest Football World Cup qualifiers in South Africa 2010, in which we must defend the title of World Champions. |
