| Intro | Italian footballer | ||||
| Is |
Athlete Football player Association football player |
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| From | Italy | ||||
| Type | Sports | ||||
| Gender | male | ||||
| Birth | 15 January 1975, Turin, Province of Turin, Piedmont, Italy | ||||
| Age: | 45 years | ||||
| Stats |
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Valerio Bertotto (born January 15, 1973 in Turin, Piedmont) is an Italian football manager, currently for Bassano Virtus, and former footballer, who played as a defender.
Club career
Bertotto started his professional career in season 1990–1991 for Alessandria of Italian Serie C2. He joined Udinese in 1993, quickly becoming a historical masterpiece for the team, and spending thirteen seasons with the Friuli side, also captaining his side to their to date only appearance in the UEFA Champions League, becoming also the Udinese player with the highest number of matches played for the team ever.
In July 2006, aged 33, he left Udinese to join Siena, another Serie A team, playing two seasons as a regular for the Tuscan side. He was successively released as a free agent in June 2008, and in January 2009 he accepted an offer from Lega Pro Prima Divisione club Venezia. He was released for free after the club was excluded from the Italian football panorama due to financial issues.
In 2010, he obtained the UEFA A coaching license, made him eligible to coach Lega Pro teams, however he haven’t started the coaching career yet, until 2012.
International career
Bertotto has played 4 times for the Italy national football team between 2000 and 2001, all during his spell at Udinese, with his debut coming on a European qualification match against Georgia on 11 October 2000, in Ancona. He missed out on the 2002 FIFA World Cup due to injury.
Style of play
Bertotto was a hard-tackling, uncompromising central defender, who was solid in the air, and effective in the timing of his challenges. Although he was neither particularly quick nor technically gifted, he made up for his lack of pace and skill with his experience and positional sense, and his greatest strength was his ability to defend opposing forwards in one-on-one situations.
Managerial career
Italy U20 Lega Pro
On 9 August 2012 he was named head coach (Italian: selezionatore) of Italy U20 Lega Pro in place of Giorgio Veneri.