Born on this day in 1988 is goalkeeper and penalty shootout hero, Vito Mannone. The Italian shot-stopper famously helped Sunderland beat Manchester United in the 2014 League Cup semi-finals.
Mannone was with Atalanta as a youngster until Arsene Wenger snapped him up in 2005. He was quickly sent on loan to Barnsley to compete for the Tykes’ number one spot, and made his debut in a 2-2 draw against Blackpool in the League Cup. The game went down to penalties, with Mannone saving a spot kick and helping the team progress to the next round.
However, he made two errors in his first two league games which both led to goals, and his loan spell was cut short in October 2006 after suffering a knee injury.
During his time at the Emirates, Mannone was regularly seen as a third-choice keeper. Wenger had the likes of Jens Lehmann, Lukasz Fabianski and Wojciech Szczęsny to choose from, meaning Vito only made 15 Premier League appearances between 2006 and his eventual departure in 2013.
That summer, Paolo Di Canio and Roberto Di Fanti had made it their mission to overhaul Sunderland's squad. Mannone was the sixth signing of the window, following Valentin Roberge, Modibo Diakite, Cabral, David Moberg-Karlsson and Duncan Watmore. Di Canio signed 14 players altogether and Mannone, along with Watmore, was the pick of the bunch. He was a useful experienced head alongside all of these exciting, young European talents.
Despite featuring in Sunderland’s pre-season Asia Trophy, Mannone’s goalkeeping rival Keiren Westwood was preferred in the opening stages of the 2013/14 season. However, after Westwood suffered a concussion against Hull in November the Italian was given some Premier League minutes. He kept the number one spot after a mix of impressive performances and further injury to Westwood.
In that same season, Mannone wrote himself into the history books. In the second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final, he famously produced a great penalty save at Old Trafford to send Sunderland to Wembley, and kick-start our great escape under Gus Poyet.
One of the lesser-talked about moments of the season though was Mannone’s part in a 2-2 draw with Manchester City. The lads were 2-1 up in the dying minutes thanks to Connor Wickham, but our keeper fumbled Samir Nasri’s shot into his own net, in what should have been a routine save. Although a draw against the eventual champions was a good result on paper, the circumstances meant it felt like a loss as we stayed bottom of the league.
Mannone didn’t let the mistake affect him though, showing a great mentality to come back and continue to excel towards the end of the season. In the end-of-season awards, he was named both the Supporters Player of the Year and the club’s official Player of the Year.
The following season was less successful for Vito though. He started as first choice, but poor performances came to a head as we were humiliated by Southampton in the 8-0 defeat, with Mannone arguably at fault for at least three goals. The following week the Lads were put to the sword by Arsenal, with the keeper to blame for Arsenals second goal. Poyet dropped Mannone in favour of Costel Pantilimon- although Mannone was eventually brought into the fold by Sam Allardyce several years later.
Mannone was sold to Reading for £2 million following our relegation. A well-run club might have retained their second-choice Premier League keeper following the sale of Jordan Pickford, but cash-strapped Sunderland decided to bring in Robin Ruiter and Jason Steele instead...
After loan spells in America and Denmark, Mannone signed a two-year deal with Monaco with the aim of passing on his quality and experience to younger players. He was briefly linked with Sunderland in the summer of 2021, before rumours were quashed with the signing of Ron-Thorben Hoffmann.
