Lorenzo De Silvestri was born in Rome on May 23, 1988. He grew up with Lazio, played in every youth team and worked himself up to the top tier. During the course of his training he was always very highly considered by coaches who predicted he could be one of the most important Lazio players coming from the youth sector since Alessandro Nesta and Marco Di Vaio.
De Silvestri is a very physical right back, who can play both in a more defensive role as well as a more attacking position. He debuted for Lazio in the Intertoto Cup in the last minutes of Tampere United Lazio in 2005. His first appearance in Serie A came on April 22 2007 in the game against Fiorentina.
De Silvestri was a good friend of Gabriele Sandri. Sandri on November 11, 2007 was travelling on an away trip to Inter but was shot to death by a policeman. The lethal bullet was fired from a distance of about 50 metres while Sandri was asleep in the back of a car in a motorway cafe car park in Tuscany (Gabriele was a well-known DJ in the capital). It later transpired the police thought there was a robbery going on. The Inter-Lazio game was called off and there were fan revolts all over Italy in protest about the tragedy. The policeman, Luigi Spaccarotella, would later be condemned for wilful homicide.
Unfortunately De Silvestri did not turn out to be the fantastic footballer everybody thought he would be. He was “just” average. As a consequence he did not have the playing time he thought he would get. At the end of a successful season for Lazio with the Coppa Italia win of 2009, De Silvestri argued with President Claudio Lotito over the renewal of his contract. He refused to play and the club was forced to sell him.
He played 69 games for Lazio (47 in Serie A, 14 in Coppa Italia with two goals, 6 in Champions League and 2 in the Intertoto Cup).
In August 2009 he signed for Fiorentina. Despite his ambition, he still did not play that much more than with Lazio. He stayed for three years with 86 appearances and two goals. In his second year the Fiorentina manager was Sinisa Mihajlovic.
In July 2012 he was loaned to Sampdoria with option to buy. He became a regular player once his former Lazio manager Delio Rossi took over. In his second year Rossi was replaced by Mihajlovic. He stayed four years in Genoa, the last season marred by injury, with 114 appearances and 9 goals.
In August 2016 he signed for Torino, following manager Mihajlovic. He stayed for four years, in the first he did not play much but starting from his second year he, finally, became a first choice player. He played 128 games with 13 goals for the Granata.
Sinisa moved to coach Bologna in 2019 and De Silvestri joined him for the fourth time in 2020. He has 78 appearances so far (2022-23 season) with six goals. He played a lot less last season.
De Silvestri has played for every possible Nazionale: under 16, under 17, under 18, under 19, under 20, under 21, as well as the Olympic team in the 2009 Beijing games. When he joined Fiorentina he was even called up for the national team and has 6 caps.
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Intertoto Cup |
2005-06 | 3 | - | 1 | - | 2 |
2006-07 | 4 (1) | 2 | 2 (1) | - | - |
2007-08 | 34 (1) | 24 | 4 (1) | 6 | - |
2008-09 | 28 | 21 | 7 | - | - |
Total | 69 (2) | 47 | 14 (2) | 6 | 2 |
Sources
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