Sebastiano Siviglia

Sebastiano Siviglia (born 29 March 1973) is an Italian football coach and a former player who played as a defender.

Throughout his career, Siviglia played over 250 matches in the Italian Serie A for several clubs, in particular Lazio, where he made over 150 league appearances.

Born in Palizzi, the Province of Reggio Calabria, Siviglia started his senior career at Audax Ravagnese, a Serie D club located in Ravagnese, Reggio Calabria, southern Italy.

He then spent 3 seasons at Parma, located in Emilia–Romagna region, northern Italy.

Siviglia then moved to Serie D side Nocerina in 1993, which finished as runner-up with the Campania side in Group H and promoted to professional football (Serie C2, Italian fourth highest level).

He won Serie C2 Group C Champion in 1995 and promoted again.

Siviglia finished the third in Group B with Nocerina but lost to Ascoli in promotion playoffs first round (also semi-final).

In 1996, he was signed by Serie A side Verona.

He played the first Serie A match on 22 September 1996 against Fiorentina as starter, which the Veneto side lost 0–2 to la viola.

He played 30 league matches that season (all as starter), and followed the team relegated to Serie B. In 1998, he was signed by newly relegated league rival Atalanta, in exchange with Paolo Foglio, and won promotion back to Serie A in 2000 as the 4th.

He finished seventh in 2000–01 Serie A season with the Lombardy side, but was provisionally banned 2 months for suspected match-fixing along with team-mate Fabio Gallo and Luciano Zauri.

The ban cleared in May 2001.

Siviglia returned to squad on 13 May, against Roma, which lost 0–1 away at Stadio Olimpico.

Roma maintained 5 points lead that round (round 30) and ultimately won the Scudetto.

On 19 May 2001, Roma agreed to sign Siviglia which Siviglia's contract was reported would expire on 30 June and announced officially on 6 July But he failed to play regularly; he played five league matches under Fabio Capello, as the club had internationals players Cafu, Aldair, Walter Samuel, Zago, Christian Panucci, Vincent Candela and Jonathan Zebina.

He made his UEFA Champions League debut there, on 30 October 2001 against R.S.C. Anderlecht, as starting XI along with Cafu, Aldair and Samuel.

On 30 June 2002, the last day of the 2001–02 fiscal year, he was re-signed by Parma in exchange with Luigi Sartor.

Sartor was priced €9.5 million and Siviglia priced €9 million.

Roma also swapped their backup players and even youth players for inflated price with other clubs, in order to gain false "profit".

As both club got value added on the players they sell, which gave "profit" by selling players, but they were false "profit" because they turned all the revenue they sell to buy registration rights from opposite side also with inflated price, but as the cost was amortized proportionally during the player contract (usually multi-year), which still appeared profit in the first fiscal year balance sheet.

Siviglia only played twice for Parma before returned to Atalanta in December 2002 for their Serie A campaign.

In August 2003, he left for another Serie A side Lecce, where he partnered with the rising star Cesare Bovo, which also one of the few youth players sold by Roma in 2002 and not a flop.

Both players was spotted and shined again, which Siviglia joined Lazio on loan.

Although aged 31, Siviglia started to play as a regular for a big club, as Lazio only had Fernando Couto, Paolo Negro and Massimo Oddo remained and Jaap Stam, Siniša Mihajlović and Giuseppe Favalli had left the club.

He played 29 league matches that season, and 4 2004–05 UEFA Cup matches, 3 as starting XI, out of possible 6.

On 31 August 2005, the loan deal became permanent, cost €610,000 only for Lazio He signed a 3-year contract.

Prior to join Lazio, he also played two matches (all at Coppa Italia) for Parma as starter.

Later Couto also joined Parma on free transfer.

Siviglia was selected by Delio Rossi along with Cribari as central defender pair and secured sixth place for the club.

He only missed a few matches due to injury, likes in round 7.

and suspended in round 22 & 23 (after received a red card in round 21).

But due to 2006 Italian football scandal, Lazio deducted 30 points in 2005–06 season and 3 points in next season, ruled the biancocelesti out of European competition.

In 2006–07 season, Lazio finished 3rd (due to Fiorentina deducted 15 points and finished 6th), marked the return to UEFA Champions League.

That season, Siviglia played 32 Serie A matches, 31 as starter and sent off 2 times and thus suspended twice (round 19, 37 & 38 ).

He was also injured due to a muscle injury in his left thigh and missed the round 28 match.

Roma finally fined €60,000 by Criminal Court of Rome for irregularity on youth players transfers only on 30 October 2007.

But the chairman of both clubs acquitted the false accounting.

And inflate the price and cross-trading itself are not illegal, prosecutor failed to prove the purpose behind is illegal against the clubs.

At the start of 2007–08 season, he was injured in a friendly match But he was also offered a new contract which last until June 2010.

After he played the first league match of the season on 23 October as starter, he suffered complained of pain and did a surgery.