Vito Mannone

Infobox Football biography
playername = Vito Mannone


dateofbirth = birth date and age|1988|3|2
cityofbirth = Desio
countryofbirth = Italy
height = height|m=1.92|precision=0
currentclub = Arsenal
clubnumber = 24
position = Goalkeeper
youthyears = 2003–2005
2005–2006
youthclubs = Atalanta
Arsenal
years = 2006–present
2006
clubs = Arsenal
→ Barnsley (loan)
caps(goals) = 0 (0)
2 (0)
pcupdate = 2008-01-31
nationalyears =
nationalteam =
nationalcaps(goals) =
ntupdate =

Vito Mannone (born March 2, 1988) is an Italian football goalkeeper who currently plays for Arsenal.

Club career

Early career

Mannone was signed by Arsène Wenger during the summer of 2005, joining the Gunners from Atalanta on a three-year deal for a £350,000 compensation fee, as the player had not yet signed a professional contract with the Italian side. He made his Arsenal debut in a pre-season friendly against Barnet on July 16, 2005, as Arsenal ran out 4-1 winners.

Loan to Barnsley

On August 18, 2006, Mannone was sent out on a three-month loan to Barnsley, where he was expected to challenge Nick Colgan for the number-one spot. [cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/barnsley/5262864.stm | title=Tykes loan for Gunners goalkeeper |accessdate=2006-08-18 | work=BBC Sport] Mannone's time at Barnsley was not a happy one - on his debut away to Preston North End on September 22, 2006, he came on as a substitute after Colgan was sent off and gifted Preston the winning goal, punching the ball onto Patrick Agyemang's head. [cite web | url=http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/coca_cola/article1705670.ece | title= Preston North End 1 Barnsley 0: Mannone gifts Preston the points |accessdate=2006-09-26 | work=The Independent ] In his next match, against Luton Town, starting in place of the suspended Colgan, he dropped a cross late on and allowed Ahmet Brković to score the winner.

Return to Arsenal

After suffering a knee injury, Mannone's loan period was cut short and he returned to Arsenal on October 23, 2006 for treatment. [cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/6076960.stm | title=On-loan Mannone back at Arsenal |accessdate=2006-10-23 | work=BBC Sport ] It was rumoured that he was going to go on loan to Scottish Premier League side Inverness CT in January 2007, but the deal fell through as they could not guarantee him a first-team place. He was also linked with a loan move to then newly-promoted Scottish Premier League side Gretna in the summer of 2007, but that move fell through as well. [cite web
url=http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=477719&CPID=14&clid=3&lid=&title=Gretna+to+sign+Arsenal+keeper |title=Gretna to sign Arsenal keeper |author=Mark Buckingham |accessdate=2007-07-20 ] [cite web |url=http://icscotland.icnetwork.co.uk/sport/sportheadlines/tm_headline=no-1-snag-hits-gretna&method=full&objectid=19545793&siteid=50141-name_page.html |title= No. 1 snag hits Gretna |accessdate=2007-07-31 |work=icScotland]

Mannone regularly played understudy to Łukasz Fabiański during Arsenal's 2007-08 League Cup campaign. However, he was left an unused substitute in all of the club's five matches in the competition, before they were knocked-out in the semi-finals against North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. On December 19, 2007, Arsenal announced that Mannone had signed a new long-term contract. [cite web |url=http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=485534&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=Young+goalkeeper+signs+new+contract |title= Young goalkeeper signs new contract |accessdate= 2007-12-19 |work= Arsenal.com] On April 19, 2008, he was named on the bench for his first Premier League game, Arsenal's 2-0 win against Reading at the Emirates, but was left an unused substitute as Jens Lehmann played the entire match.

Following the departure of Jens Lehmann in the summer of 2008, Mannone became Arsenal's third-choice goalkeeper, behind Manuel Almunia and Łukasz Fabiański, and changed his shirt number from 40 to 24 at the beginning of the 2008-09 season, after Manuel Almunia (previously wearing 24) opted for the shirt number 1. On July 19, 2008, he was brought on for the second half of Arsenal's 2-1 pre-season friendly win over Barnet at Underhill, keeping a clean sheet. He made a total of four pre-season appearances for Arsenal's first team in the summer of 2008, coming on as a half-time substitute in all of them.

References

External links

*
* [http://www.arsenal.com/first-team/players/vito-mannone Arsenal.com profile]

Persondata
NAME=Mannone, Vito
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Italian goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH=1988-03-02
PLACE OF BIRTH=Desio, Italy
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=