Federico Marchetti (born 7 February 1983 in Bassano del Grappa) is an Italian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Serie A club Cagliari.

Club career

A Torino youth system trainee, Marchetti made his professional debut on loan to Pro Vercelli, being then loaned to a number of other Serie C1 and Serie C2 teams in the following years: he spent the 2003–04 season as second choice keeper with Crotone and later Treviso, without making a single appearance with any of these teams. He started the 2004–05 season as third-choice keeper Torino, making a single appearance in his time with the granata as a substitute; he then asked to be transferred in January 2005, after Torino signed another keeper, Gianluca Berti, and he was subsequently loaned to Pro Vercelli for the remainder of the season, and spent the 2005–06 season on loan to Biellese.

On June 2006, he was signed by Serie B club AlbinoLeffe, initially as reserve to Paolo Acerbis. In his first season with the celeste, he made 13 appearances, being successively promoted as first choice keeper the following season.

During the 2007–08 season, his performances proved to be instrumental in AlbinoLeffe's historic first qualification to the promotion playoffs, where his club narrowly missed promotion to Lecce. He subsequently won the Serie B best goalkeeper award, thus raising significant interest from top flight teams. In July 2008, Cagliari agreed a loan bid with AlbinoLeffe for the goalkeeper, with Cagliari having an option to buy 50% of players' rights to an agreed price.

In his first season in the Serie A, Marchetti confirmed his performances, firmly ensuring a place in the starting lineup, his performances being praised by several football pundits, being also defined by Gianluigi Buffon as his favourite Italian young goalkeeper.

International career

In May 2009, following his impressive performances with Cagliari, Marchetti received his first call-up to Marcello Lippi's Italian national team for a friendly game versus Northern Ireland. He was featured in the game as a starter, and played the whole match, also keeping a clean sheet in a clear 3–0 win for the azzurri.

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