Emiliano Viviano

Brescia

Born in Florence, Viviano is a product of Fiorentina and Brescia youth teams. He started his career with a loan in Serie B at Cesena in the 2004–05 season. Then he spent four years as first-choice goalkeeper in Serie B with Brescia.

Inter, Brescia loan & Bologna

In January 2009, Viviano was signed by Inter Milan in a co-ownership deal for €3.5 million. He was immediately loaned back to Brescia. In the 2009–10 season he made his debut in Serie A with Bologna where he became the first-choice goalkeeper. Bologna signed him in by purchasing Viviano's 50% registration rights from Brescia also for €3.5 million.

Inter return, Genoa and Palermo

On 25 June 2011, Viviano rejoined Inter Milan from Bologna after the Lega Serie A had announced the results of the co-ownership deals. Due to an administrative error he once again linked up with Inter, on this occasion for a fee of €4.1 million. The error came about as the Bologna club director, Stefano Pedrelli, had accidentally halved the initial €4.71 million valuation of the remaining 50% of Viviano's contract again, leading the club to bid only €2.33 million in response to Inter's €4.1 million valuation of the player on the bid submitted to the league office on 24 June. On 23 July 2011, Viviano was diagnosed with a complete tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in the left knee. The injury ruled him out for almost half of the 2011–12 season. In August 2011, Inter swapped Viviano with Juraj Kucka in a…

Viviano was the first-choice goalkeeper for Italy at the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship. He was a part of the Italian squad that took part at the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. He made another appearance for the national U-21 side in a friendly against the Dutch U21 side on 5 February 2008 in preparation for the upcoming Olympics. Viviano went on to play at the 2008 Summer Olympics with Italy. The Olympic team was primarily composed of players from the Italy U21 side that took part at the 2007 European Under-21 Championship side, but who would no longer be eligible to play in the 2009 edition of the tournament. Viviano did not take part in the 2008 Toulon Tournament, however, a warm-up tournament before the Olympics. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Italy reached the quarter-finals, where they suffered a 3–2 defeat to Belgium; during the match, Viviano was sent off in the 80th minute for a reactionary foul on Kevin Mirallas, after the latter had kicked the ball at him when play had stopped following Mousa Dembélé's goal, which took Belgium into the lead, and ultimately proved to be the match–winner. After receiving his first senior call-up on 6 August 2010, ahead of Italy's friendly against Ivory Coast on 10 August, Viviano made his debut for Italy senior team on 7 September, during a UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match, in a 5–0 victory against the Faroe Islands in Florence. At that time he became the second choice goalkeeper for Italy, only after veteran…

Considered by pundits and footballing figures to be a promising goalkeeper in his youth, who was even touted as a potential successor to Gianluigi Buffon with the Italy national team, Viviano is known for his penalty saving abilities as well as his reflexes and shot-stopping capabilities between the posts; his ability to come off his line to deal with high balls has been cited as an area in need of improvement, however. With 12 stops, he has saved the joint–ninth–highest number of penalties in Serie A history. In 2011, Kris Voakes of Goal.com described Viviano with the following words: "His 6ft 5in frame gives him a head start, but it is also thanks to his organisation, command of the area, anticipation and, naturally, his excellent shot-stopping abilities that he has become known as one of the best Serie A has to offer." He is also competent with the ball at his feet, which allows him to play the ball out from the back on the ground.

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International