Matteo Ferrari (born December 5, 1979 in Aflou, Algeria) is an Italian football player who currently plays for AS Roma. Matteo was born in Algeria, but from an Italian father and a Guinean mother. He grew up in Ferrara and has a brother who also used to be a football player.
      Matteo started his career at Spal 1907, and he can play as left-back or centreback. Internazionale Milano F.C. brought him to their youth system, later loaning him to Genoa C.F.C., U.S. Lecce and A.S. Bari. He went back to Inter, making 27 appearances, but failed to stay, this time loaned to Parma A.C.. A permanent transfer was made because of his good performance. On summer of 2004, he joined AS Roma for an undisclosed fee and Damiano Ferronetti going to opposite direction. He failed to give the performances he had delivered in Parma, forcing the club to loan him to UEFA Cup competitor Everton F.C..
      It took a few games for him to get accustomed to the Premiership, but Ferrari showed plenty of quality when he finally got going for Everton. Unfortunately that was brought to an end in the 1-0 win over Arsenal, when he sustained nerve damage to his hamstring.
      He returned to the Everton side for the FA Cup 4th Round replay defeat against Chelsea.
      Rumours suggested at one point Matteo Ferrari wanted to return to Roma, but in April 2006 David Moyes declared that all the signs pointed towards Matteo wanting to stay on and sign for Everton. More rumours emmerged in late April stating that Matteo was far from happy at repeatedly having to play second fiddle to Alan Stubbs and David Weir. The chance to secure his signing permanently was in jeopardy. On May 8 2006, Everton announced they would not follow up their interest in Matteo and that he would return to Roma.
      This is what eventually happened, even if Olympiakos FC was highly interested in signing him.