Full name Alberto Aquilani
Date of birth 7 July 1984 (age 26)
Place of birth Rome, Italy
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position Central Midfielder
Roma
In 2001, at the age of sixteen, Chelsea and Arsenal offered him contracts, but he declined the offers to continue playing for his youth club Roma.[1]
He made his debut in Serie A at the age of eighteen on 10 May 2003 under then manager Fabio Capello against Torino. He was loaned to Serie B club Triestina for the 2003–04 season to gain first team experience.
Returning to Roma in the 2004–05 season, he broke into the starting XI. In the 2005–06 season, he scored the second goal in the derby victory on 26 February 2006, a victory in which Roma broke the record for the most consecutive wins in Serie A,[2] a record later broken by Inter Milan in the 2006–07 season.
In the following season, Aquilani was expected to be one of Roma's best players. He was given the number 8 shirt previously worn by Matteo Ferrari. Unfortunately, an injury forced him out of the game for several months.[3][4] Aquilani returned to the field in May 2007 and featured in three games towards the end of the season, including the last two.
He also played in the Champions League against Real Madrid, where he had an excellent game.[citation needed] He scored two long range goals in the first two matches of the 2007–08 season against Palermo and Siena.[citation needed] Although he was injured in October 2007,[5] he returned to squad in January 2008.
Aquilani was injured again on 22 October 2008 against Chelsea.[6] He returned to action on 11 January 2009 against Milan but picked up another injury in February.[7] Although he played against Arsenal as a last minute substitute on 11 March 2009,[8] he did not play in the rest of the season.
On 26 May 2009, Aquilani signed a new contract with Roma until 2013, adding three more years to previous deal.
Liverpool
On 5 August 2009, Liverpool announced that they had agreed a deal with Roma for the transfer of Aquilani, subject to a medical. The club subsequently announced that the player had passed the medical and signed a 5 year contract on 7 August 2009. Roma revealed that the fee was 20 million euro (£17 Million) plus sporting bonus.[14] Aquilani was handed the number 4 shirt, last worn by Sami Hyypiä, who joined Bayer Leverkusen at the end of the 2008–09 season. Although it was initially thought that he was recruited as a replacement for holding midfielder Xabi Alonso who had left the same summer to join Real Madrid, Aquilani actually prefers to play further up the pitch and is considered to be more of a dynamic attacking midfielder than a holding playmaker.
Aquilani made his Liverpool reserves debut with a 15 minutes substitute appearance in a 2–0 win against Sunderland reserves on 21 October 2009.
Aquilani's first game for Liverpool was a 2–1 4th round Carling Cup defeat to Arsenal, coming on in the 77th minute for Damien Plessis.[16] He made his long awaited Premier league debut on 9 November 2009, as a late substitute against Birmingham City in a 2–2 draw. He then made a 30 second appearance against Hungarian club Debrecen on 24 November which Liverpool won 1–0 courtesy of a goal from David Ngog. Aquilani made his first start against Fiorentina in an Champions League match on 9 December 2009, where Liverpool lost 2–1. Aquilani made his first Premier League start against Wolves on 26 December 2009 and received a standing ovation from the Kop when he was substituted in the 84th minute for Daniel Pacheco.
Aquilani next started for Liverpool in their 2–0 win over Bolton Wanderers, where he got his second assist for Liverpool, again setting up Dirk Kuyt. He scored his first goal for Liverpool on 15 March 2010 against Portsmouth and he also assisted Fernando Torres for the fourth Liverpool goal. He was voted man of the match by the fans on Liverpool's official website. Aquilani also gained the man of the match award in his next Liverpool league start, against Fulham FC in a goalless draw at Anfield. In his next start for Liverpool he finished the match with three assists during a 4–0 away win against Burnley F.C. On 29 April 2010 he scored a goal against Atletico Madrid in the Europa League, cancelling out Atletico's first leg goal from Diego Forlan by scoring moments before half-time. Despite a great performance from Aquilani on the night, Liverpool eventually went out of the semi-finals on the away goal rule after Benayoun had put Liverpool 2–0 up, as Diego Forlan scored his second of the tie in exta-time to take the aggregate score to 2–2.[20] Aquilani won the LFC Man Of The Match award again after his performance.[21] Aquilani also played in Liverpool's last 2 games of the season, a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea at Anfield[22] and a goalless draw away to Hull City at the KC Stadium.[23] In total, Aquilani played 26 times in his debut season for the reds, scoring twice but rarely playing the full 90 minutes. New Liverpool FC manager Roy Hodgson has clearly stated his intent on keeping the skillful Italian at the club by saying that he has full confidence that Aquilani can be the best long passer in the Premier League.
He was nicknamed "Il Principe" (Italian for "The Prince") by the Roma faithful.
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