Carl Valeri was a World Cup player at Under-17, Under-20 and senior levels, and Olympic Games (Under-23) representative
Born in Canberra, Carl Valeri played at Tuggeranong juniors before spending 2000–2001 at the Australian Institute of Sport.
He then spent 12 years in Italy, at Inter Milan (2002–2004), Spal (2004–2005), Grosseto (2005–2009), Sassuolo (2010–2013) and Ternana (2014). Once he broke in to the senior team at Spal in 2004, he spent three seasons at third tier level, before playing the rest of his time in Italy in the second tier after assisting Grosseto to first place on the final 2006–2007 Serie C ladder.
He played a total of 235 league games in Italy, 153 in Serie B.
Throughout 2000–2001 he played for the Joeys, and captained the side at the 2001 Under-17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago.
Over the next two years he was with the Young Socceroos, and took part in the 2003 Under-20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. His representative commitments continued at Under-23 level thoughout 2004, and he appeared in three games at the Athens Olympic Games.
In 2008 he established himself in the senior national team line-up, playing in 11 World Cup qualifying games leading up to the 2010 finals. He started in all three of Australia’s games at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (L0-4 v Germany, D1-1 v Ghana, W2-1 v Serbia), and in early 2011 played in five matches at the Asian Cup in Qatar.
He started in another eight World Cup qualifiers throughout 2011–2012, but after struggling for game time at his club over 2013–2014 found it difficult to be re-established in the national side.
In 2014 he joined Melbourne Victory, winning a premiership and championship in his first season back in Australia in 2014–2015, as well as the 2017-18 championship.
A internationals
2007–2014 52 games (1 goal)
2007: CHINA, URUGUAY, ARGENTINA, NIGERIA
2008: QATAR, CHINA, IRAQ, IRAQ, QATAR, CHINA, SOUTH AFRICA, NETHERLANDS, UZBEKISTAN, BAHRAIN
2009: JAPAN, UZBEKISTAN, QATAR, NETHERLANDS, OMAN
2010: NEW ZEALAND, DENMARK, UNITED STATES, GERMANY, GHANA, SERBIA, SLOVENIA, SWITZERLAND, POLAND, EGYPT
2011: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, SOUTH KOREA, BAHRAIN, IRAQ, UZBEKISTAN (1 goal), JAPAN, GERMANY, NEW ZEALAND, SERBIA, WALES, THAILAND, SAUDI ARABIA, MALAYSIA, OMAN, OMAN, THAILAND
2012: OMAN, JAPAN, SCOTLAND, IRAQ, SOUTH KOREA
2014: BELGIUM, SAUDI ARABIA
This is an extract from Andrew Howe's 'Encyclopedia of Socceroos' published by Fair Play Publishing (2018).