Michel Morganella

Michel Morganella
Morganella behind Celtic forward Maciej Żurawski
Personal information
Date of birth (1989-05-17) 17 May 1989
Place of birth Sierre,[1] Switzerland
Height 1.84 m (6 ft 12 in)[2]
Playing position Right back
Club information
Current team
Palermo
Number 17
Youth career
2005–2006 Sion
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2006–2009 Basel 6 (0)
2009– Palermo 103 (2)
2010–2012Novara (loan) 64 (0)
National team
2005–2006 Switzerland U17 12 (3)
2007–2008 Switzerland U19 9 (0)
2009–2011 Switzerland U21 3 (0)
2012 Switzerland Olympic 3 (0)
2012– Switzerland 2 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17 May 2016 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 18:20, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

Michel Morganella (born 17 May 1989) is a Swiss footballer who plays as a defender for Palermo and the Switzerland football team.

Football career

Born to an Italian father and a Swiss mother,[3] Morganella is a product of the FC Basel youth system and plays as a right-back or a wide-right midfielder. He first came into the Basel team at the end of the 2006–07 season, playing in three games that campaign. In the 2007–08 campaign he was given the #4 jersey, later starting to be featured on the first team.

Morganella then signed a new three-year contract at Basel, with the club moving quickly to freshen up his expiring deal. This deal was intended to keep him at St. Jakob-Park until 2011.

However, on 30 January 2009, following days of speculation about his future, Palermo officially announced to have signed Morganella from FC Basel on a four-year and a half contract,[4] He thus became the first Swiss footballer to play for the rosanero.[5]

During his early times at Palermo, Morganella never broke into the first team and he was eventually loaned out to Serie B club Novara in July 2010.[6]

On 31 January 2011 Palermo announced to have sold 50% of Morganella's transfer rights to Novara along with Samir Ujkani (both tagged for €1.5M),[7] as part of a bid involving striker Pablo Andrés González for €5 million.[8] He concluded the season with a historic promotion to Serie A.

On 22 June 2012, Palermo announced on their website that they had re-acquired the full transfer rights of Morganella and fellow Novara player Samir Ujkani.[9]

International career

Morganella debuted with the senior Swiss national football team on 30 May 2012, replacing Reto Ziegler in the friendly against Romania.

He was chosen by Pierluigi Tami for the London 2012 Olympics national squad.

On 30 July 2012, following the Swiss team's defeat to South Korea, the Swiss Olympic Committee expelled[10] Morganella from the games after he posted on Twitter a message translating to "I'm going to beat up every Korean. Go on – burn yourselves! Bunch of mongoloids."[11] Morganella later apologized.[12]

Titles and honours

Basel

  • Swiss Champion at U-18 level: 2005/06[13]
  • Swiss Cup Winner at U-19/U-18 level: 2005/06[13]

References

  1. "michael morganella novara - Serie B" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  2. http://palermocalcio.it/it/1617/squadra/michel-morganella-6679
  3. "Morganella: La mia partita in Champions League" (in Italian). Mediagol.it. 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
  4. "ACQUISTATO MORGANELLA DAL BASILEA". US Città di Palermo. 30 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
  5. "PRESENTAZIONE MORGANELLA FELICE DI ESSERE IN ROSANERO" (in Italian). US Città di Palermo. 10 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  6. "MOVIMENTI IN USCITA DEL PALERMO" (in Italian). US Città di Palermo. 16 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
  7. "Bilancio Palermo 2010/11: utile grazie a Cavani e Kjaer" (in Italian). ju29ro.com. 8 February 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  8. "ACQUISTATO PABLO ANDRES GONZALEZ" (in Italian). US Città di Palermo. 31 January 2011. Archived from the original on 4 February 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  9. "MOVIMENTI DI MERCATO" [MARKET MOVEMENTS] (in Italian). US Città di Palermo. 22 June 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  10. "Olympics football: Michel Morganella expelled for racist tweet". Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  11. "Swiss Olympic expels player for racist tweet". Swissinfo. 30 July 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  12. "Switzerland Olympic team expels footballer from London Games over racist Twitter message". AP / Washington Post. 30 July 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  13. 1 2 "Zwei weitere Titel für FCB-Nachwuchs" (in German). FC Basel 1893. 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-18.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.