Full Name :Domenico Criscito Date Of Birth:30 December 1986 (age 23) Place of Birth:Cercola, Italy Height:1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) Position:Left Back Current Club:Genoa National Debut:2009 Caps:5 (0)
Domenico Criscito (born 30 December 1986) is an Italian footballer who plays as a defender for Serie A club Genoa. He is a versatile defender who started his career as a centre back but now usually plays at left back.
Club career
A native of southern Italy, Criscito moved up north at age 13 to pursue his football career. He 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 his contract to Juventus for €950K (€500K + co-ownership of Nocerino's contract).
Criscito played for Juventus' Primavera team alongside Italy U-21 teammates Claudio Marchisio, Paolo De Ceglie and Sebastian Giovinco and together they won the 2006 Campionato Primavera. In the 2006-07 season, he returned to Genoa and established himself as one of the top young defenders in the Serie B. In January, Juventus bought the remaining 50% of his contract 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. 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. However, he endured a difficult time at the Turin club. He was deemed "too soft" after Francesco Totti scored twice in six minutes in the September game, a 2-2 draw, against Roma and substituted at half-time. Since then, he found himself behind Nicola Legrottaglie and Giorgio Chiellini in the pecking order due to their outstanding form.
Not content to remain on the bench, Criscito opted to go return to Genoa on loan in the opening days of the winter transfer window. In the summer of 2008, he was sent on loan to Genoa again with the Ligurian club having the option to purchase half of his contract for €5.5million. In February 2009, he scored his first goal since returning to Genoa, the winner against Palermo. His co-ownership agreement was made permanent for the 2009-10 season. He has been very impressive since re-joining Genoa, who were back in Serie A by then, and retained a place in the starting line-up as Gian Piero Gasperini's first choice left back. However, he did not rule out a return to Juventus after being linked to a permanent return to replace Fabio Grosso. In September against Napoli, Criscito was shown a straight red card for allegedly swearing at the referee after being penalized for a foul on Christian Maggio but Gasperini later defended 23-year-old saying that he was angry at himself, not the referee. The appeal to rescind the red card was turned down but his ban was reduced to 2-3 matchdays. Towards the end of the season, he has been linked with a return to former club Juventus, a move he states he would think about at that point in his career.
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. After a promising season he was named in Marcello Lippi's 23 men squad for the 2010 World Cup.
