Fulham Football Club has today announced that A.S. Roma striker Vincenzo Montella has joined the Club on a loan deal that will see him wear the Fulham colours until the end of the 2006/07 season.
Montella began his career with Serie C side Empoli F.C. in 1990. In 1996 he moved to Serie B club Genoa scoring 21 goals in his only season with the club. He then spent three seasons with U.C. Sampdoria in Serie A, before he joined A.S Roma for €25m in 1999 where he has remained.
32 year old Montella, nicknamed L'Aeroplanino (Little Airplane), won a Scudetto with A.S. Roma in 2001 and is renowned for scoring against Lazio in the Rome derby games. On the international stage, Montella received his first Italian cap against Wales on 5 June 1999 and was part of the Italian national team at Euro 2000 and the 2002 World Cup.
This morning Vincenzo Montella said:
‘I am pleased that we have been able to reach an agreement between the two clubs to enable me to play at Fulham for the remainder of the season. It has been an ambition of mine to play in England at some point in my career and I am happy to be given the opportunity. For me, I just want to play football and score goals, so I am looking forward to being able to do that with Fulham as soon as possible.’
Chris Coleman added:
‘I am delighted that we have been able to bring in a player of Vincenzo’s quality to assist us with the latter half of this season’s campaign. His qualities as a player are widely recognised, and his motivation to join Fulham is based purely on his desire to play football and to score goals for us, and I couldn’t wish for a better reason for us to welcome him here.’
