Clubs:AS Roma

UEFA honours
UEFA European Under-21 Championship: winner 2004

• Rome born and bred, De Rossi joined the Giallorossi in his teens and made his debut in a 2001/02 UEFA Champions League group match against RSC Anderlecht.

• A fringe player at Roma until 2004, when − buoyed by victory with Italy at the UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Germany, where he scored the first goal in the final against Serbia & Montenegro − he became a first-team regular.

• Scored four minutes into his senior Italy debut – in the first qualifying match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup campaign against Norway; started the opening two games at the finals but was sent off against the United States, the subsequent four-match ban enabling him to return (as a substitute) in the final versus France, where he converted his penalty in the successful shoot-out.

• Helped Roma to record an 11-match winning streak in the 2005/06 Serie A campaign; a runner-up that season and on four other occasions (2003/04, 2006/07, 2007/08, 2009/10) but a Coppa Italia winner in 2007 and 2008.

• Ever-present for Italy at UEFA EURO 2008, where he scored against France but missed his penalty in the quarter-final shoot-out against Spain, he registered the Azzurri's first goal of their ill-fated 2010 FIFA World Cup defence in South Africa.

• Extended his 12-year association with Roma for a further five seasons when he renewed his soon-to-expire contract in February 2012.