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Nicola Ventola (born May 24, 1978 in Grumo Appula, Bari) is an Italian footballer playing as a striker. He was a member of the Italian squad at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and represented Italy in the under-21s team.

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. Signing for Internazionale in 1998 he was showing real star potential, including scoring against eventual European Cup winners Manchester United. However, exactly a year later he was co-own with Bologna (after Christian Vieri's £32 million transfer to Inter from Lazio) and later Atalanta, in a swap deal with Corrado Colombo. ^[1]

Ventola returned to Inter in 2001 but, suffering from injuries, was not picked regularly for the first team, going on loan once again to Siena in 2003. 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.^[2]

In July 2005 Ventola signed a two year contract with Atalanta, scoring six goals in 29 games during the 2006-07 season.

In June 2007 he joined Torino F.C. on a two-year contract.^[3]

After two years with Torino F.C., he did not renew the contract and he is now without a team.

Ventola has a son, Kelian (b. 22 September 2003), with Brazilian model Kartika Luyet.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• (Italian) La Gazzetta dello Sport career profile
• Profile on archivio.inter.it

v • d • e Italy squad – 2000 Summer Olympics 1 De Sanctis • 2 Grandoni • 3 Mezzano • 4 Zanchi • 5 Ferrari • 6 Gattuso • 7 Comandini • 8 Baronio • 9 Ventola • 10 Pirlo • 11 Zambrotta • 12 Margiotta • 13 Ambrosini • 14 Rivalta • 15 Cirillo • 16 Vannucchi • 17 Zanetti • 18 Abbiati • 21 Firmani • Coach: Tardelli

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