Federico Balzaretti

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Federico Balzaretti

Full name	Federico Balzaretti
Date of birth	December 6, 1981 (1981-12-06) (age 26)
Place of birth	Turin, Italy
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Left Back
Club information
Current club	Palermo
Number	42
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1999-2001 2001-2002 2002-2005 2005-2007 2007-2008 2008-present	Varese Siena Torino Juventus Fiorentina Palermo	44 (0) 16 (0) 94 (0) 56 (2) 6 (0) 12 (0)
National team²
2000-2002 2002	Italy U-20 Italy U-21	023 (1) 04 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 10 June, 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 17 April, 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Federico Balzaretti (born 6 December 1981 in Turin) is an Italian footballer who currently plays for Serie A side U.S. Città di Palermo. He plays in the role of a left sided full-back.

Known as 'Balzac' by most fans, he grew up since the age of 6 in the Torino youth system, debuting for the granata in season 2002-03. After a couple of seasons on loan to Varese and Siena, 'Balzac' was heavily involved in the 2004-05 Serie B campaign of Torino, which brought the team to a Serie A promotion.

However, as Torino disbanded right after that promotion, 'Balzac' was released in a free transfer, and was signed by city arch-rivals Juventus. In 2005-06 he was part of the first team for the bianconeri, often playing as regular under orders of coach Fabio Capello, and finally winning the Serie A league.

'Balzac's' first ever senior goal game on 17 February 2007, in Serie B, as Juventus beat Crotone 5-0. He was sold to Fiorentina on July 2007, but failed to impress with the viola as he made only six appearances in the first half of the Serie A 2007-08, and was subsequently signed by Palermo in a permanent move during the January transfer market.^[1]