Federico Macheda was born on the 22nd of August 1991 in Rome, Italy and began his football career with local club Lazio's youth team after being spotted at the local Atletico Prenestino club in Rome. However, due to Italian football regulations preventing under-18s from signing professional contracts, he was not permanently tied to the club, and shortly after his 16th birthday, he was signed by England's Manchester United, where regulations permited the signing of players aged 16 and over.
On Sunday the 5th of April 2009, Manchester United were drawing 2-2 in a crucial game against Aston Villa. As things stood, Liverpool sat top of the table following a last gasp win over Fulham the day before. Dropped points were not an option for Alex Ferguson’s side. Then the 17 year old Italian came off the bench for Manchester United and scored a stunning late winner to beat Aston Villa 3-2, forging the Red Devils ahead in the battle for the trophy with Liverpool, transforming his debut into the stuff of dreams. It propelled his name around the world and briefly he was adored by the red half of Manchester. Federico though found it would never get better than that at the top level — though his form for United earned subsequent loans to Serie A, the Bundesliga, Championship and then a permanent transfer to Cardiff City. He was initially sent on loan to Sampdoria in 2011, then QPR for just three matches in 2012, then Stuttgart in 2013, where he failed to find the net in 14 league games, before finding some success on loan at Doncaster Rovers and then impressively with Birmingham City at the end of the 2013/14 season with 10 goals from 10 starts. Becoming the Blues top goalscorer that season, and the expiry of his contract with Man United, brought Macheda to Cardiff's attention, with the Bluebirds recently relegated from the Premier League and looking for some cut-price signings. However regular game time didn't materialise. He stuck around in Cardiff until March 2016, starting just 13 games in nearly two years, scoring six times. A three-game loan stint with Nottingham Forest came and went before his Cardiff contract was cancelled by mutual consent. He went without a club from August to December 2016, but then landed a move back in his homeland with Novara Calcio in the Italian Serie B. Panathinaikos brought his first taste of Greece and his most fruitful spell. Macheda, back at a 'big club', netted 40 times in just over 100 matches, a far better return than his previous efforts. That move lasted four years and was perhaps the most stable period of an otherwise nomadic career but his fall from grace continued as he bounced around European clubs and eventually ended up in the Super Lig in Turkey where he's struggled.
The career of a footballer is short. One moment can change a career forever. When your aim is to make the grade at a big club, those split-second chances are even rarer. You have to seize them; grab them by the throat or they will pass you by. It's even less common that a player does that and still slips through the net. Their big moment goes to script only for the success to be short-lived and self-sabotaged. Macheda told Calciomercato, "Regrets? I have only one. When I made the step up to the Manchester United first team, I had to give three times as much as what I had already. I didn’t, which is the only regret I have. I’ve learned a lot from that mistake. I advise the younger players to listen to close relatives and friends, and to surround themselves with people who really love them. It’s never easy to manage pressure. You just have to focus on what you do on the pitch, and don’t worry too much about what the media is saying."
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/04/footballs-nearly-men-alexandre-pato.html
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