Federico Gatti
Federico Gatti (born 24 June 1998) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Frosinone, on loan from club Juventus. In his youth career, Gatti represented Chieri, Torino and Alessandria. Gatti started his senior career with Promozione team Pavarolo in February 2015 gaining promotion to Eccellenza in the next season. In mid-2016, Gatti joined Saluzzo, but returned to Pavarolo six months later. Gatti had stayed at Pavarolo until 2018, when he changed his position from midfielder to defender during the last matches of the season. He then moved to Verbania, who won the Eccellenza  title and were promoted to Serie D in the 2018–19 season. Despite Verbania's relegation in the following season, Gatti made his professional debut with Serie C side Pro Patria. The following year, he joined Serie B side Frosinone. In January 2022, Gatti joined Juventus who loaned him back to Frosinone until the end of the season. Career. Youth career. In 2005, aged seven, he played a friendly match for Chieri against Torino; his talent as a "trequartista" was noticed by Giorgio Boscarato, Torino's sporting observer, and reported him to Silvano Benedetti, the Torino Youth Sector sporting director who  ultimately bought him. Gatti had eventually been promoted to the under-15s, before moving on to Alessandria's youth team. Gatti spent the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons with the "Giovanissimi Nazionali" (under-15s) side and with the "Allievi" (under-17s) team. Throughout his youth career, Gatti was neither considered by Torino, nor by Alessandria. Gatti was sent on loan to Pavarolo in the 2014–15 season. Instead of playing with the "Allievi" side, Gatti spent the larger part of the season playing for the "Juniores" (under-19s) team with which he scored 13 goals in 18 league appearances despite being only 17 years old. 2015–2020 : Amateur career. In February 2015, Gatti debuted with the first team with whom he made four appearances in that season. The following season, Gatti was promoted to the first team, and scored three goals in 27 Promozione appearances; he also won the award for the Best Youth Player of the season. His side were also promoted to Eccellenza having won the Coppa Italia Promozione Piemonte–Valle d'Aosta. Gatti was loaned to Saluzzo in 2016 by Alessandria. However, due to his lack of playing time, Gatti returned to Pavarolo in mid-January 2017. At the end of the season, Pavarolo avoided  relegation to Promozione. During the whole 2016–17 season, Gatti scored eight goals in 31 league appearances. In the following season (2017–18), due to economic problems, Pavarolo could not make payments, so the most experienced players decided neither to train nor to play the last 10 league matches, and the "Juniores" team were promoted to the first team. As Gatti was the tallest player on the squad, he changed his position from midfielder to defender. Gatti ended the season scoring seven goals in 27 Eccellenza appearances, but his side were relegated to Promozione. Verbania were impressed by Gatti's performances as  a defender in a match against them and they purchased him on a permanent deal in 2018. He scored one goal in 34 league appearances and Verbania won the Eccellenza title. Gatti impressed Serie C side Cavese who tried to purchase him, but did not. In the following season (2019–20), he had scored three goals in 22 Serie D appearances prior to the interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, and his side were also relegated to Eccellenza. 2020–2022: Pro Patria and Frosinone. In mid-2020, Gatti made his professional move to Serie C side Pro Patria. Gatti started his  experience with them being an unused substitute during Pro Patria's match against Carrarese on Matchday 1. On 30 September, Gatti debuted for Pro Patria, in a 3–2 second round Coppa Italia match, lost against Vicenza after extra time. Gatti's first Serie C match was on 4 October in a match drawn 1–1 to Pro Vercelli. His only goal for Pro Patria came on 3 April 2021, which allowed his team to win 1–0 against Lecco. On 9 May, Gatti played his last game of the season in a Serie C promotion play-offs match against Juventus U23 — the  reserve team of Juventus — in a match lost 3–1 at home, causing his side's elimination from the play-offs in the first round. During the season, Gatti's matches were 36, almost all of them 90 minutes long. Gatti moved to Serie B side Frosinone in 2021, singing a four-year contract for a fee of €250,000. Gatti made his debut on 15 August in the Coppa Italia first round match against Venezia; the match ended 1–1, and Gatti later missed his penalty in the penalty shoot-out, losing 8–7. Gatti's Serie B debut came on 20  August, in which he played as a starter in a 2–2 draw against Parma. Gatti first scored for them on 23 October in Frosinone's 2–1 win against Ascoli. On 4 December, Gatti was sent-off after being yellow carded twice in two minutes of an eventual 1–1 draw against Ternana. Gatti's return to the pitch after the one-match suspension caused by the red card came on 18 December, in Frosinone's 4–0 win against SPAL which saw him score two goals. 2022–present: Juventus. Gatti had been close to a transfer move to the cross-city rivals  Torino before Juventus entered the negotiations and bought him on 31 January 2022. Juventus signed Gatti on a four-and-a-half-year deal for a fee of €7.5 million plus €2.5 million in performance-related bonuses. 2022: Return to Frosinone on loan. After singing Gatti, Juventus promptly loaned him back to Frosinone for the rest of the season. Gatti's first match since his loan was on 5 February when he scored the opener in Frosinone's 2–0 win against Vicenza in the 44th minute. Style of play. Gatti is a robust right-footed centre-back who  stands at tall. According to Andrea Gigante, writing for 90min.com, attributed to his previous experience as a midfielder, Gatti has good technique and vision and also has a strong personality and is strong in the air. According to Domenico Marchese, writing for "La Repubblica", Gatti also excels at man-to-man marking. According to Pro Patria sporting director Sandro Turotti, Gatti can play in a four-man defense but can also play centre-right in a three-man defense as he did for Pro Patria. Frosinone sporting director Guido Angelozzi drew comparisons to Juventus' centre-back duo, defining Gatti as  a [Giorgio] Chiellini with [Leonardo] Bonucci's feet. Personal life. Aged 17, Gatti left school and started working, following his father's unemployment. He had worked as a bricklayer and as window manufacturer, had repaired roofs and had worked at the general markets for nine to ten hours a day, until 2018. Gatti would train only in the evening, used to have dinner at 23:00 and would get up between 03:00 and 04:00. Gatti's career has also been compared to Moreno Toricelli's who had played football at amateur levels and had been a joiner before signing with Juventus  in 1992. Gatti considers Juventus' defender Giorgio Chiellini as his idol. Prior to switching positions from midfielder to defender, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Adel Taarabt and Radja Nainggolan had been his idols. Gatti is an only child and his father, Ludovico was a sporting director during his experience at Pavarolo. Honours. Pavarolo Verbania