Mauro Germán Camoranesi Serra, Cavaliere Ufficiale OMRI, (born October 4, 1976 in Tandil, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) is an Argentine-Italian World Cup-winning footballer, who currently plays for Juventus in Serie A as a midfielder, usually on the right wing.

Camoranesi is a member of the Italy national football team, and was part of the winning squad at the 2006 World Cup.

Club

Camoranesi had always been a big fan of the Argentinian club River Plate growing up, but as a youngster, he played in the youth squad of native side Club Atlético Aldosivi. Aldosivi is situated in Mar del Plata just 160 km (99 mi) away from Mauro’s birthplace of Tandil.

However, he moved to Mexico to begin his professional playing career at Santos Laguna. The club won the Primera División de México during the Invierno 1996 season, Camoranesi scored 1 goal in 13 games for the team; this was the clubs first ever championship success. Santos Laguna fans nicknamed him "El Cholo".

More travels came for the young Argentine the following year, as he moved to Uruguayan club Montevideo Wanderers briefly, before returning back to his homeland to play for Banfield, solidifying himself as an impressive attacking right midfielder, while playing 38 games with 16 goals.

The following season Camoranesi moved once again, this time back to Mexico and club Cruz Azul, where he played from 1998 to 2000. He caught the attention of Italian Serie A side Hellas Verona by scoring 21 goals in 75 games with Cruz Azul, an impressive achievement for a midfield player.

He moved to Italy in 2000, signing with Verona where he played two years. In 2002, Camoranesi was signed on a co-ownership deal; initially Juventus paid Verona €4.8 million (reportedly £3 million) and gave them co-ownership of Max Vieri. On 26 June 2003 he was signed outright by the bianconeri on a permanent basis for an additional fee of €4.5 million; this was the same day Juventus signed Marco Di Vaio and Enzo Maresca in similar deals.

Juventus

With Juventus, Camoranesi won Serie A in 2002-03, and Italian Super Cups in 2002 and 2003. Camoranesi was also a Serie A champion with the Old Lady in 2004-05 and 2005-06, but Juventus were stripped of both of those titles as another result of the "calciopoli" scandal.

Despite his agent Sergio Fortunato linking the player to clubs such as Lyon, Valencia and Liverpool over the summer of 2006, following Juve’s relegation, Camoranesi made an announcement himself in September, pledging loyalty to Juventus: "In January I will not ask to be sold, I’m happy to stay here.", he stated.

Camoranesi contributed to a number of notable goals when Juventus played in Serie B after the relegation. Against Lecce, on April 2007, he performed an impressive piece of skill similar to a Cruijff Turn, turning the ball through a defender’s legs on the wing, before retrieving it to help set up Juve’s first goal of the match. Later in the match he scored his side’s third; Camoranesi took the ball past three Lecce defenders, before hitting the ball from the edge of the box, with his left foot into the top corner. Just days before he had scored a headed in the 2-0 victory against close title contenders S.S.C. Napoli. His original shirt number was 16, but was changed to 8 for 2007-2008.

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