Giuseppe Rossi (born 1 February 1987) is an American-born Italian
footballer who plays as a
striker for Spanish club
Villarreal CF and the
Italian national team. He holds dual Italian and American
citizenship.
Early life
Rossi was born to Italian immigrant parents in
Teaneck,
New Jersey; his father, Fernando Rossi, coached soccer and taught Italian and Spanish at
Clifton High School. His mother, Cleonilde Rossi, was also a language teacher at Clifton. At age 12, he moved to Parma, Italy with his father to begin his youth career at
Parma.
Club career
Early career
When offered a spot on the youth team of Parma, Rossi (then 12) and his father moved to Italy until
Manchester United bought his contract when he was 17. He scored his only
Premier League goal with a long range effort in a 3–1 win over
Sunderland at the
Stadium of Light.
At the start of the
2006–07 season, Rossi moved to
Newcastle United on loan until January 1, 2007, where he was expected to gain some first team experience. He made his home debut on September 24, 2006. Rossi scored his only Newcastle goal in his first start on October 25, 2006, against
Portsmouth in a Carling Cup Third Round tie at
St James' Park.
For the second half of the season, he was again loaned out, this time to his former club, Parma. Scoring nine goals in 19 league...
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