Matteo Ferrari (; born 5 December 1979) is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender He played top-flight football for several Italian clubs in Serie A, Everton of the Premier League, and for the Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer. He was usually deployed as a centre-back, although he was capable of playing anywhere along the back-line. Ferrari played for Italy at the Summer Olympics in 2000 and 2004, winning Bronze at the latter edition of the tournament. He also made 11 full international appearances for his country between 2002 and 2004, featuring in the Italian squad that took part at Euro 2004. Early life and family Matteo Ferrari is the Algeria-born son of an Italian petroleum engineer and a mother originally from Guinea. His father worked in various countries throughout Africa because of his vocation. His father died in 1993 when Matteo was 14. He grew up in Ferrara and has a brother who was a football player. Ferrari and Venezuelan model Aída Yéspica re-united in December 2009. They have a son named Aron, born in 2008. Club career Early career Ferrari started his career at SPAL in 1995, and he can play as left-back or centreback. It has all the rigmarole of youth teams, from young students: the coach of the time, Luigi Pasetti, employed him as a central striker and the player scored 37 goals in the league before switching back to defense. F.C. Internazionale Milano brought him to their youth system, later farming him to Genoa C.F.C. (in co-ownership), U.S. Lecce (in co-ownership) and A.S. Bari (loan). He made his Serie A debut on 29 August 1999, A.C. Fiorentina 1–0 A.S. Bari where Ferrari played the full match. He went back to Inter in summer 2000, making 27 appearances in all competition, but failed to stay, this time sold to Parma AC in co-ownership deal, for 9 billion lire (€4,648,112). That season Parma also signed Sébastien Frey from Internazionale for 40 billion lire (€20,658,275; cash plus Sérgio Conceição) and sold Gianluigi Buffon and Lilian Thuram to Juventus. Parma A permanent transfer was made because of his good performance in May 2002, for €5.7 million. That season, Inter also sent Adriano and Vratislav Greško to Parma (in co-ownership deal for €8.8 million and definite deal for €16 million), and signed Fabio Cannavaro (undisclosed) and Matías Almeyda (for €16 million) from the Emilia side. In three