Nikita Contini

About

Nikita Contini-Baranovsky (Ukrainian: Нікі́та Конті́ні-Барано́вський; born 21 May 1996) is a Ukrainian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Serie A club Napoli.

Contini was born in Cherkasy, Ukraine, to a Ukrainian-Italian father originally from Naples and a Ukrainian mother. When Contini was three years old, he moved with his family to Giugliano in Campania, Italy.
He started his football career at the age of five at Atletico Giugliano, where his stepfather was a youth coach; he often ended up playing in teams with older boys as he moved up their youth ranks.
In 2007, Napoli played Atletico Giugliano in a friendly and Contini stood out with his performance and impressed Napoli’s then youth goalkeeping coach Luciano Tarallo. Later that year, he went on trial with Napoli and in 2008 he joined their youth system; in his first season at Napoli, he provided good performances and won the best goalkeeper award in the “Niccolò Galli” youth tournament in Florence and the “Cairo Montenotte” tournament in Savona, Italy. However, a serious knee injury (meniscus tear) following a clash with teammate Gennaro Tutino forced him to miss the remainder…