Mirko Valtorta

Career
Mirko worked his way through the Chievo youth system and gained his professional contract in the 21/22 season. He didn't make an appearance for the first team until the 23/24 season where he played 3 times and conceded 3. Chievo did not renew his contract for the 24/25 season and Gateshead brought him in on a bosman deal. This was for him to gain experience from the much older Kleinheider due to the sale of Harry Campbell. It was quickly realised that Mirko was on another level to the veteran keeper and he became the preferred option. He played a total of 40 games and only conceded 32 at the age of 19. Compared to the teams that finished around Gateshead, we had a 20 goal against advantage to Bolton 4 places ahead of us. This form continued into the 25/26 where he helped Gateshead reach the play-offs, conceding 40 in 43 games for the north east team. The 26/27 season was a very good one for Gateshead and Mirko was key to this. He only conceded 21 in 48 games which helped them to the League One and the Leasing.com trophy and promotion to the highly competitive Championship. The next season came and it saw a new youngster of Mertens, who was putting plenty of pressure on Mirko for the 27/28 season. He started off fairly ropey, making some mistakes so Ireland deceided to let the youngster have a go. This proved to eventually be the end of Valtorta being number one at Gateshead. He still managed to only conceed 33 goals in 23 games, but this was nothing on Mertens 19 in 27. This made Mirko unhappy and was making him look for a move and change in scenery. Borussia Dortmund came in with a surprising bid of £1.6 Million. Ireland really couldn't argue with this offer as he was only worth £1.1 Million, so it was accepted and became the clubs highest received fee in the Ireland reign at that point.