Former Arsenal goalkeeper Vito Mannone kept a clean sheet on his competitive return, helping new club Crawley Town knock out York City in the preliminary round of the Carabao Cup on Monday night.
Mannone, 38, was signed by Arsene Wenger in 2005 and went on to make 15 appearances for the Gunners before leaving in 2013. He joined Crawley Town earlier this summer in a dual player-coach role.
The goalkeeper made two saves as Gianmarco Di Biase and Danilo Orsi scored to send Crawley's season off to a winning start at the LNER Community Stadium. Some of the visiting fans serenaded former Crawley coach Scott Lindsey, who took charge of newly promoted York City last week after being sacked by Crawley earlier in the year, with chants of "sacked in the morning" following Di Biase's 24th-minute opener.
Crawley narrowly avoided relegation on the final day of last season. They now travel to Watford in the Carabao Cup first round on Saturday, before their League Two campaign begins the following weekend at home to Crewe.
Return after 18 months out
Monday's match was Mannone's first competitive appearance in 18 months. He last played for French club Lille in February 2025 before leaving as a free agent at the end of that season.
He had most recently worked at Premier League club Brighton as an Academy Goalkeeper Coach and was a UEFA A GK Candidate before joining Crawley in June. Mannone will head up the goalkeeping department, taking charge of all sessions and player development, while also remaining available for selection as a registered member of the playing squad.
Crawley manager Colin Kazim-Richards told the club website: "To be able to add to my coaching staff, to the club, someone of Vito's calibre is a credit in itself. His knowledge, his footballing experiences, playing at the highest level with some of the best coaches in terms of standards, what it actually takes and ideas coming from a country that creates amazing goalkeepers, has really taken us up another level."
"Vito comes with an intensity, and it's something I'm looking forward to in terms of creating a relationship and benefiting from his skills from a goalkeeper's perspective, and also as a person," Kazim-Richards added. "As soon as we spoke, I knew he was the right man, so I can't wait to work with him."
Career from Arsenal to Sunderland
The 6ft 2in Italian joined Arsenal from Atalanta's academy at age 17. After a loan spell at Barnsley in the 2006-07 season, Mannone became a regular around Arsenal's first team alongside Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski, making his debut against Stoke City in May 2009.
His stock rose during an eight-game run for Arsenal in the 2009-10 campaign, though he lost his place when Almunia returned from injury. Two season-long loans at Hull City followed before he joined Sunderland in 2013, where he made 80 appearances.
Mannone moved to Reading in the summer of 2017. After two seasons with the Royals and a loan spell in Major League Soccer with Minnesota United, where he was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, he returned to Europe for spells at Esbjerg FB, AS Monaco, FC Lorient and Lille before departing at the end of the 2025-26 season.
Following his appointment at Crawley, Mannone said: "I am delighted and proud to take on this role and can't wait to meet everyone at the club and to start working with the staff and players. I'll give everything to the cause and hope to pass on my experiences as a player, leading into a successful season."
