Parma pounce for out-of-favour Donati

Italian Under-21 midfield player Massimo Donati has joined Parma AC on loan from Milan AC in a bid to secure first team football, according to the Gialloblu official website.

No first-team joy
The 21-year-old has struggled to break into the Milan first team and Samuele Dalla Bona's arrival from Chelsea FC has convinced him that his immediate future lies elsewhere. At Parma, he will also get the opportunity to play in the UEFA Cup after last season's Coppa Italia success.

Big-money move
Milan signed Donati from Atalanta BC at the end of the 1999/00 season for €15m but immediately sent him back to the Bergamo club, who had just won promotion.

Under-21 breakthrough
He made his top-flight debut in a 2-2 draw at home to S.S. Lazio on 1 October 2000 and went on play 26 league games, scoring once to help Atalanta clinch seventh spot, plus win a key role in the heart of the Italy U21 side.

Pining
He returned to the San Siro in summer 2001, but by January admitted he was pining for a regular spot and available for another return to Atalanta. Demetrio Albertini and Massimo Ambrosini had both recovered from injury, and with Fernando Redondo then on his way back from injury, he conceded that chances of regular first-team action were likely to decline still further.

'Need to play'
"Sometimes the need to play is stronger than the desire to be at a big club," he said at the time. He ended the campaign having made just 17 appearances.