Roberto Di Matteo

Roberto Di Matteo (born 29 May 1970) is an Italian professional football manager and former player.

During his playing career as a midfielder.

He played for Swiss clubs Schaffhausen, Zürich and Aarau early in his career.

The following season Di Matteo again proved his worth to the team, contributing ten goals and numerous assists, as Chelsea went on to claim the Football League Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup, their first European honour since 1971.

In the League Cup final, again against Middlesbrough, Di Matteo scored the second goal in a 2–0 win.

In a dour match, Di Matteo capitalised on an error by Aston Villa goalkeeper David James to score the winner in the 72nd minute, handing Chelsea their fourth major trophy in three years.

This led Di Matteo to comment on the old Wembley Stadium saying "It's a shame they're tearing the old place down it has been a very lucky ground for me".

He helped the club finish sixth place in the league, their highest placing since 1989–90, and reach the 1997 FA Cup final at Wembley.

Within 42 seconds of the kick-off of the final against Middlesbrough, Di Matteo scored the opening goal from 30 yards and Chelsea won 2–0.

His passing ability and accurate long-distance shooting saw him become one of the driving forces of Chelsea's resurgence in the late 1990s, along with several other Italian players.

He contributed nine goals in his first season, including long-range efforts against both Tottenham Hotspur and Wimbledon.

Born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland to Italian parents from Abruzzo, Di Matteo began his career with Swiss club Schaffhausen, before joining Aarau in 1991.

After winning the Swiss league title with Aarau in 1992–1993, he joined Serie A team Lazio where he played under managers Dino Zoff and Zdeněk Zeman.

He won the Swiss Nationalliga A with Aarau in 1993.

He signed for Lazio in the summer of 1993 on a free transfer.

Di Matteo became a regular starting-11 member of the Lazio side in midfield under managers Dino Zoff and later Zdeněk Zeman, and he made his debut for the Italian national team during his three seasons with the Rome club.

Under Zeman, he was frequently deployed in the central midfield role, in which he was required to aid the team defensively – thanks to his formation as a sweeper during his youth – as well as offensively and creatively.

During his time at the club, he developed into one of the top two-way central midfielders in Italy.

Di Matteo scored the winner against Middlesbrough on his home debut for Chelsea.

Di Matteo made his Italy debut under Arrigo Sacchi on 16 November 1994 in the Stadio La Favorita in Palermo.

He made his first start in his second cap, a friendly 3–1 victory over Turkey on 21 December 1994 in the Stadio Adriatico in Pescara.

The match against Cameroon in Montpellier was his last game for Italy; in total he made 34 caps for Italy between 1994 and 1998, scoring 2 goals.

Under his Lazio managers Zeman and Dino Zoff, Di Matteo was frequently deployed in the central holding midfield role in the team's 4–3–3 formation, in which he was required to aid the team defensively, owing to his formation both as a sweeper and as a centre-back in a zonal defence during his youth in Switzerland.

After three seasons at Lazio, he joined Chelsea in 1996 for £4.9 million fee, a club record at the time.

Born in Switzerland to Italian parents, he was capped 34 times for Italy, scoring two goals, and played in UEFA Euro 1996 and the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

He came on as a 55th-minute substitute for Demetrio Albertini as Italy lost 2–1 to Croatia in qualification for UEFA Euro 1996.

Di Matteo played two of Italy's group matches in UEFA Euro 1996, against Russia and Germany.

His first goal was scored on his 23rd cap, in qualification for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, on 30 April 1997 in a 3–0 win against Poland in Naples.

Di Matteo played in midfield next to Gus Poyet, Dennis Wise and Dan Petrescu in the 1998–99 season as Chelsea finished third.

Di Matteo only scored one more goal for Italy, in a friendly win over Slovakia on 28 January 1998.

He was a member of Italy's FIFA World Cup team in 1998 and played two of their group games, against Chile and Cameroon.

During the 1999–2000 season Di Matteo was sidelined by injury but returned late in the season to score a handful of crucial goals, including his third Cup-winning goal at Wembley, once again in the FA Cup.

Early into the 2000–01 season, Di Matteo sustained a triple leg fracture in a UEFA Cup tie against Swiss side St. Gallen and did not play for the next eighteen months.

He retired as a player in February 2002 at the age of 31 following injury problems.

He gave up on hopes of returning from this injury in February 2002 and retired at the age of 31.

In his six years at Chelsea, Di Matteo made 175 appearances and scored 26 goals.

Di Matteo began his managerial career with Milton Keynes Dons, whom he took to the League One playoffs in 2008–09 before leaving to return West Bromwich Albion to the Premier League.

Di Matteo's goal was the fastest in a Wembley FA Cup final until the record was broken by Louis Saha for Everton in 2009.

As caretaker manager of Chelsea, he steered the club to double title success, winning both the FA Cup and the club's first UEFA Champions League title in 2012, but was dismissed later that year.

He coached Schalke 04 for seven months in 2014–2015 and Aston Villa for four months in 2016.