Domenico Criscito (born 30 December 1986 in Cercola, Naples) is an Italian footballer who plays as a defender for Serie A club Genoa. He is a left back who started his career playing as a centre-back.

[edit] Club career

Criscito started his professional career at Genoa, for which made his debut in Serie B in June 2003 at the age of 16. In the summer of 2004 Genoa sold 50% of the rights to Juventus for €950K (€500K + 50% of Nocerino). ^[1]

He played for the youth team of Juventus in the following two seasons, winning the Italian youth championship in 2006 and scoring the opening goal in the final match against Fiorentina. In 2006-2007 he went to play for Genoa, this time in the first team, proving himself as one of the best Serie B defenders and earning a place in Italy's Under-21 national team.

In January 2007, Juventus bought the remaining 50% of Criscito for a combined price of €7.5 million. This was paid by the co-ownership of Masiello and Konko to Genoa, and €5.25 million.^[2] He also signed a new contract with Juventus which will last until June 30, 2011.

Criscito made his Serie A debut with Juventus on August 25, 2007; in Juve's comeback game in Serie A versus Livorno, a crushing 5-1 victory. After a few poor performances along with the impressive form of Nicola Legrottaglie and Giorgio Chiellini, Criscito found regular starting positions in defence hard to find, and hence he was loaned out to Genoa C.F.C. in the opening days of the 2008 January transfer market. In the summer of 2008, he was sent on loan to Genoa once more, with a pre-set price of €5.5million to co-own the player. He has been very impressive since re-joining Genoa in the Italian Serie A, and has proved to be very versatile and of very high quality, maintaining a starting position and playing in the center of defence, the left side of defence, as well as left midfield.

[edit] International career

On 14 November, 2006 Criscito made his debut with the Italy U-21 squad in a match against the Czech Republic. He was present in two Euro U-21 Championships, in 2007 and 2009. In 2008 he also represented Italy at the Summer Olympics.

On 12 August, 2009 he made his senior national team debut in a friendly against Switzerland in Basel.

[edit] References

v • d • e Italy squad – 2008 Summer Olympics 1 Viviano • 2 Motta • 3 De Ceglie • 4 Nocerino • 5 Cigarini • 6 Criscito • 7 Montolivo • 8 Marchisio • 9 Rocchi • 10 Giovinco • 11 Rossi • 12 Dessena • 13 Coda • 14 Acquafresca • 15 Bocchetti • 16 De Silvestri • 17 Abate • 18 Consigli • 20 Candreva • 21 Russotto • Coach: Casiraghi