Schaffhausen (Switzerland)
FC Zurich (Switzerland)
Aarau (Switzerland)
Lazio (Italy)
Chelsea (England)
Honours:
Swiss League Championship 1993, Switzerland Player of the Year 1993 (Aarau)
FA Cup 1997, League Cup 1998, ECWC 1998, Super Cup 1998, FA Cup 2000, Charity Shield 2000 (all with Chelsea)
International Recognition:
26 Italian caps. 1 Goal. Played in 1996 (England) European Championships, Switzerland Youth.
Other Little Bits Of Info…
Brought up in Switzerland by Italian parents (immigrants from the Abruzzo region) he only moved to his native country after winning both the Swiss Championship and Swiss Player of the Year award in 1993.
Epitomises the 'Italian Cool' that surrounds Chelsea and is rapidly becoming the king of the long-range bullet goal and the following classy celebration. He is equally important in the defensive and creative areas of the field, plays better when Chelsea are playing well but when on his game is a wonderful footballer.
Di Matteo is indeed an essential element to help Chelsea grasp silverware.
His stunning goal after 43 seconds and his man of the match award in the Cup Final against Middlesborough has already made him a Chelsea legend amazingly within one season. In 2000 he was to yet again bring Chelsea silverware scoring the only goal in the FA cup final, the last one to be staged at Wembley stadium.
Roberto dedicated the 1997 FA cup goal to his sister Concetta who was sitting in the crowd. When she was 12, she contracted a rare eye disease, retinis pigmentosa, and by the time she was 18, all she could see was shadows.
Roberto Di Matteo was an unhappy man in 1996. Zdenek Zeman, the former Czech basketball coach who managed Di Matteo’s club Lazio, was critical of him in the Italian press and it was apparent that he no longer enjoyed his support. Di Matteo had just established himself in the Italian national side, and his decision to take a day off after one game infuriated Zemen, who was renowned for demanding maximum physical effort from his players. When an unforced error by Di Matteo against Inter led to an unpopular defeat, Zemen blamed him personally. Di Matteo announced that he would have to leave and within hours Ruud Gullit was in contact. Di Matteo’s departure angered many Lazio supporters and the taxi was spat on as he left Cragnotti’s office following the completion of the Chelsea deal. Earlier the post box of his home had been vandalised. Di Matteo had found it quite hard to adapt to the volatile atmosphere of Roman football. He found he was recognised everywhere and often abused. London was completely different. After a brief spell in a hotel, the club found him a flat in Kensington and when he walked down the streets , he was left unmolested. ‘I enjoy the privacy and I enjoy London’, he said. There was a crisis at home however on one occasion where he returned from an international match to find the water pipes had burst in his flat and it had become flooded. Like Zola he believes playing in English football has enhanced his career.
Di Matteo has an unusual background, he was born in Schaffhausen in German speaking Switzerland, the son of immigrant workers from Paglieta in the Abruzzo, and spent most of his life in Switzerland. He played for his local club as an 18-year-old before joining FC Zurich and later SC Aarau. The ambition of his parents was for him to succeed with Serie A and they were overjoyed when he signed for Lazio. His Debut for Italy came in 1994 losing 2-1 to Croatia. Di Matteo was to lucky to be able to play for Italy, for many years players not born within the country could not qualify, and so the changing of the rules allowed Di Matteo to become an Italian international rather than a Swiss, one much to the annoyance of Roy Hodgson.
Di Matteo has acclimatised well to the English way of life, and showed an instant understanding of the vernacular, after his Chelsea debut against Southampton, when he upset a young opposition fan by writing the second strongest taboo word in the language on his hat. For which he was then forced to apologise and subsequently fined
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