Former Italian goalkeeper Christian Abbiati

Christian Abbiati is a former Italian goalkeeper, who spent most of his sports career in Milan. At the moment he does not occupy any other position, since he left the sport just a few months ago. Christian Abbyati, whose age at the moment is 39 years old, has a long and successful career, in which he achieved impressive results with "Milan".

Carier start

Christian Abbiati was born in July 1977 in Italy, where he started playing football. At the age of eleven he joined the football academy of the small club "Aurora", where he spent three years. Christian Abbiati, whose height is 191 centimeters, was an ideal candidate for the position of the goalkeeper, which he began to occupy from an early age. In 1991, he moved to the academy "Trezzano", and a year later - to the club "Assago". But even there he did not stay long - in 1993, 16-year-old Christian moved to the academy of the club "Corsica" and only from there already moved to the professional club "Monza", with which he concluded a full-fledged contract.

Already at the age of sixteen he made his debut for the club, but that's all it was. In 1995, he was leased to the Boragezia club, where he was to gain practice. During the year, he played in a new team and spent 29 matches, in which he missed only 27 goals. Even then it became obvious that Christian is a growing talent. Returning to his club, he immediately became a base player - for two years he defended the team gate, going to the field 53 times and conceding 60 goals. Such a large number is due to the fact that in 1997, "Monza" went to Serie B, where the opponents were much stronger. However, this had a positive impact on Abbyati's career - he was noticed by Milan, one of the strongest clubs in Italy, who in the summer of 1998 bought a talented goalkeeper for 750 thousand euros.

Going to Milan

Already in his first season, Christian Abbiati spent as many as 18 matches for the team, and from the second season became the main goalkeeper. He defended the colors of Milan for seven years, and during this time he played 164 matches. However, in the seasons 03/04 and 04/05 he lost his place in the base, having left in the two years in total only sixteen times on the field. But Abbyati did not want to leave the club, so it was decided to lease it. The desire immediately expressed Turin's "Juventus", where the goalkeeper went for a year.

Lease period

Christian Abbiati is a football player who is completely devoted to his club. He did not want to get playing practice on an ongoing basis elsewhere, but chose to stay in Milan throughout his career, leaving to rent only to wait a chance in his own club. In "Juventus" Abbiati played 27 games, conceding only 17 goals in them, and then returned to "Milan". But there was still no place for him, so the next year he went on loan to another Turin club - "Torino", paid 300,000 euro for the season of the lease. There he became a base player and played 38 matches, and when the lease ended, he went abroad to Madrid "Atletico". The Spaniards paid "Milan" 500 thousand euros for the annual agreement, and Abbiati defended 30 matches at the gates of "Atletico". Only in 2008, the 31-year-old goalkeeper returned to Milan to stay there until the very end.

Return to Milan

In 2008, Christian Abbiati returned to Milan and played in his favorite club until 2016, when he retired. The first two years after his return, he served only as a reserve goalkeeper, having played 39 games in two seasons. However, since 2010 for four seasons Christian again was the main goalkeeper of the club, having played another 158 matches. In 2014, he spent 13 more games, and in 2015 - just six, after which he announced his retirement from the sport. Together with Milan, Abbiati won a lot of trophies - three times he became the champion of Italy (twice in his first period and once in the second), won the Italian Cup in 2003, won the Italian Super Cup in 2004 and 2011. Also in 2003, Abbiati won the trophy, which every footballer dreams about - the Champions League Cup. And although in that year he was a reservist, he got the trophy in the same way as all the other members of the team.

National team appearances

In the Italian team, there have always been strong enough world-class goalkeepers, therefore for all his long career Abbyati played only four matches. He made his debut in a friendly game against Switzerland in 2003, played the same year with the Romanians, and then in 2005 he played two games in a row - against the Dutch and Côte d'Ivoire teams. However, it is worth noting that he often became one of three goalkeepers needed to participate in major tournaments. The first tournament, which went Abbiati, was the European Championships in 2000. Then he was summoned to the 2002 World Cup, but this tournament was the last for the goalkeeper. Already in 2004, at the European Championships, he was not included in the application and since then has not taken an active part in the affairs of the team. The last time he was called up for a qualifying match against Scotland in 2007, but the whole game was spent on the bench.