From Rome, to Blackburn, to Swindon, Raffaele De Vita has had quite the career.
The Italian, who is one of many players part of the setup at Superior Sports Management, was touted by Blackburn scouts when he was just fifteen despite living in Rome.
De Vita said: "Yes basically I was playing for the local club at the start of January and got told obviously that there were some interest and some scouts from Blackburn Rovers who had to come to watch the games and stuff.
"It was all just a bit surreal, I had just turned fifteen at the time so I was just enjoying football and enjoying school and stuff, I was quite happy with the life I was living as a teenager and I didn't really have any plans to go into full-time football so when that chance came about through to England, I didn't know anything England, I couldn't speak English and even less about Blackburn so I just went over and didn't really know what was going on.
"I went there for a week but the academy was, and still is, an unbelievable setup, for the first time in my life I had seen kids my age breathing football everyday, training twice a day and it was unbelievable to see. Even just the fact that I got to train on grass pitches I had never had the chance for that because obviously in Rome now you have astro turf but back in the day you didn't have any grass because it never rained so I had never really played on a grass pitch. So it was unbelievable experience and I came back to Rome where they [Blackburn] offered me the chance to sign for four years initially as a scholarship for when I turned pro when I was seventeen but I am glad I didn't think about it too much otherwise my parents probably wouldn't have let me go."
Upon featuring for the Blackburn reserves squad, De Vita played alongside accomplished forward Joe Garner, who has since played for the likes of Rangers and Watford: "I played with Joe for quite a few years, we were living in the same building basically because the older lads had to stay together and he was obviously a local lad but he still had to live in this place called the Lodge. We were the same age so since we were Under-16's and went up to the reserves obviously he left and I think he signed for Carlisle, but he was probably the main player to come from the academy he was scoring something like thirty, forty, fifty goals a season and obviously he's had a great career. At Blackburn people thought he was going to be the next Alan Shearer or at that level but he's just a natural goalscorer and at youth level he was unbelievable.
"He's one of those players who you watch and even though obviously whilst his game is not about dribbling or doing anything amazing but you could just tell he would score at any level, you could put him in the conference and he would score thirty goals, put him in the Championship and he'll do the same because he's just one of those players who just knows where the goal is. He's never going to stop scoring at any level, if anything I thought he would have had a better chance at playing in the Prem but he has played for Rangers and some really good clubs and has had a great career."
De Vita made a huge jump in 2008, swapping reserve football at Blalckburn for a professional career at Scottish outfit Livingston, where he remained with the club through their challenging administration period back in 2009: "Yes that was a big step I think I was getting a bit comfortable at Blackburn when playing in the reserves and just enjoying football when there is no pressure, you're playing on a Monday or a Tuesday night and whatever happens you're not going to upset fans, the score doesn't really matter you know but when you go onto first team football you start to understand that what happens on a Saturday it affects a lot of people.
"If you don't stay up people are going to lose their jobs, and if you get promoted you will all get a bonus, it just becomes real, like a real job and it matters what you do and obviously fans are going to be upset if you don't win a game or if you don't play well so it's a big step but I think as soon as I signed for Livingston I suffered a bad injury so I had like six months to get used to it and watch it from the outside which made it easier for me to get used to it.
"It was obviously an uncertain time for everyone when Livingston were at the point that, I think it was minutes away from going bankrupt but I just wanted to play again I didn't want to think about moving or going somewhere I just wanted to stay there and play as much as possible whilst making sure my knee was alright. We weren't playing in a good league back then after getting relegated but thankfully we managed to get back to the Championship and it was a lot more enjoyable."
The Italian next found himself moving back to England after his contract expired in Scotland to play at Swindon Town in the club's League Two promotion push: "Scotland is very physical, it's fast when on the ball or in the air all the time and there's never really a break in the game. It's always we attack then you attack and England was the same but with maybe more quality definitely at that level. I think the thing I had to get used to was more people come to watch the game as at Livingston when we were in the Championship and dropping down to League One not a lot of people came to the games we only got two to three thousand, maybe four at the big games but I remember playing my first game at Swindon and there was seven or eight thousand people and you feel like you are actually involved in a proper game of football and for the first few months of that I struggled, I just found it hard to do the business on the pitch and felt like people were going to judge me and so the first few months weren't great. Not just for me but for the manager and we didn't win many games I think he was on the verge of getting sacked and then just after a couple of months of things not going our way, it completely changed and that season turned out to be the one of the best I have been involved in."
Whilst at the Robins, De Vita was lucky enough to be managed of an icon of his; Paolo Di Canio. Like De Vita, Di Canio was born and bred in Rome and was also a fan of Lazio, as well as they had both played in Scotland and England: "It was surreal, it was one of those things where everyday that he was talking he could go on for an hour in training just talking and sometimes my mind would drift away and I'd just think how is he my manager, I used to watch him, have posters of him in my bedroom and even when he moved to West Ham I was always checking on him.
"I look up to him because he was another Italian who had moved to the UK and I look to him as an example to follow, so to be coached by him everyday and have the chance to learn off of him everyday, I just felt very privileged. And not just because he's my idol because I think as a manager he was unbelievable, his knowledge about football and the way he prepares games, I think he taught me a lot that I managed to take with me in the future."
However, Di Canio's reign at Swindon came to an end in February due to financial problems at the club, which included Matt Ritchie being sold without Di Canio's backing and the West Ham legend even putting £30k of his own money into the club to keep loan signings. This was bad news for the Town, who had been fighting for the automatic places in League One to reach the Championship, but had to settle for the play-offs, where Swindon were defeated by Brentford in the semi-finals: "It was very disappointing especially as when Di Canio left us there were ten games to go and I think we were top of the league. It's easy to say for me but I think if he had stayed maybe we would have had a great chance of getting automatic promotion instead of us having to go through the play-offs which are really difficult to win.
"So when the new manager came in we weren't playing well, we had lost confidence and going into the play-offs with no momentum which I think was the most important thing, but we were still unlucky to lose out on penalties. If you have to be honest I think we were the best team in there out of the four teams involved in the play-offs."
Comments