Leeds United supporters would be shocked to see how Marco Silvestri's career kicked on: View | OneFootball

Not many players from the Massimo Cellino era were able to leave Leeds United and impress elsewhere, but Marco Silvestri has become one of only a handful.

The 2013/14 season saw Leeds survive in the Championship, thanks to the goals of Ross McCormack, who was then sold to Fulham in the transfer window for a fee of around £11 million. That summer under Cellino also saw the departure of manager Brian McDermott in favour of David Hockaday, who only had prior managerial experience with Conference side Forest Green Rovers.

They would use the funds from the McCormack sale to put it towards no fewer than 15 signings that summer, and further additions during the January window, too. The majority were not domestic-based players but from Italy's Serie A, B, and C.

Hardly any of those would leave with much of a positive reputation, with the most successful signing turning out to be current club captain Liam Cooper in the long term. He was joined by the likes of Tommaso Bianchi, Casper Sloth, Zan Benedicic, Adryan, and Silvestri during the window, and more of them were infamous than famous during their stints at Elland Road.

Marco Silvestri's Leeds United career

On April 18th 2015, Silvestri was one of six Cellino signings (along with Mirco Antenucci, Giuseppe Bellusci, Souleymane Doukara, Dario Del Fabro, and Edgar Cani) who controversially pulled out of the squad with an 'injury' the day before a 2–1 loss against Charlton Athletic and became known as part of the 'sicknote six'.

Silvestri being part of that infamous 'sicknote six' during the final weeks of that 2014/15 season, meant his reputation at the club was near enough impossible to rescue. Leeds boss Neil Redfearn was told six members of his first-team squad were injured or unavailable for the game just a day before they were due to play.

There were conflicting reports at the time about whether the players were actually hurt or staging a protest against the club and Redfearn but the chaos that ensued surrounding the episode was typical of the tenure of Cellino as the Leeds chairman.

Silvestri would somewhat recover from that, amongst some others, but it was always going to leave a sour taste for plenty of supporters. He protested his innocence, claiming a back injury was what had been keeping him out of action.

Despite that, he retained his shirt as number one for the second season with the club, before eventually becoming second choice behind Rob Green during Garry Monk's campaign with the club in 2016/17. The goalkeeper made 44 appearances in his first season, and then featured 48 times in the next campaign, before dropping to the bench with just six appearances during that play-off push under Monk.

A somewhat divisive figure in West Yorkshire, he was renowned for his extremely strong shot-stopping abilities but struggled to handle the ball well under pressure, whilst also having issues with claiming high balls into the penalty area from free-kicks, corners, and the like.

Silvestri's career post-Leeds

Returning to Italy with Hellas Verona in 2017 for an undisclosed fee, Silvestri has gone on to build a reputation for himself as one of the best shot-saving goalkeepers in the league, even if there have been similar question marks surrounding his all-round goalkeeping abilities.

He initially signed as the deputy goalkeeper but established himself as first-choice after relegation to the second tier. After a stellar season in Serie B, Silvestri did not look back, featuring in 70 games in all competitions in the next two seasons and earning yet another move.

At Udinese, where he currently plays in Serie A, he enjoyed two highly successful seasons as number one during the first few campaigns with the club, albeit has now been used in rotation with Maduka Okoye during the latter half of the campaign.

He may never have been capped for Italy but has gained international recognition with call-ups to various squads in recent years. The first of which came on October 2nd 2020 following his impressive displays with Verona.

Not many Leeds fans would have envisaged that during his inconsistent years at the club during the Cellino era.