MARCO BORTOLAMI

Marco Bortolami was born in Padua on 12th June 1980. He started his career in Petrarca, Padua’s rugby team, and there he played until 2004. He made his debut in the Italian national team at the age of 20. He holds the record for the highest number of matches played with the national team, his 114th match being versus England on 14 February 2015 at the Six Nations Championship.
In 2001, at the age of 21, he became the youngest team captain in the history of rugby during the match versus the All Blacks, where he also got his first try in the Italian national team. On June 9th 2012, versus Argentina, he played his 38th match as captain and, also as captain, he led Italy to many important successes in the Six Nations Championship: against Scotland and Wales in 2007, against Pumas in 2006, which was the first Italian victory in Argentina.
He played in the Italian championship until 2004, for the Petrarca Padova team, then for two years in the French championship for the Narbonne team, and for four more years in the English premiership for the Gloucester team. He had the role of captain in all the teams he played for.
He wrote Vita da Capitano, an autobiography that tells about his professional and personal life. Since July 2016, he has been the coach for Benetton Rugby and the Treviso Under 18 Academy.
Since 2018, he has been committed to Care&Share’s projects, especially those aiming to help excluded and homeless children through free access to education and those committed to community participation and project involvement, in which he sees mirrored his own commitment and philosophy in the sports environment as well as in life.