Rome-born Federico Macheda started his career as afootballer with Lazio. The Italian striker then signed his first professional contract at the age of 17 when he had moved to Premier League outfit Manchester United from Lazio.
Federico Macheda scored on the occasion of his first team debut at Manchester United in April 2009. He scored the winning goal to help the Red Devils come from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-2 at home. Macheda was relatively unknown when he came off the Manchester United bench to have an instant impact. His status at Manchester United was as a fringe player before he was sent out on loan twice to Sampdoria in his native Italy in 2011 and Queens Park Rangers (QPR) in 2012. He spent further loans at VfB Stuttgart,Doncaster Rovers and Birmingham City as a Manchester United loanee.
Macheda was released at the end of his contract at Manchester United in June 2014 after failing to establish himself in the first team. He joined Welsh club Cardiff City afterwards as a free agent. At Cardiff City, Macheda spent some time on loan at Nottingham Forest. The Italian attacker spent two years at Cardiff City and then signed for Novara in the Italian Serie B. He spent 18 months during his time at Novara.
Federico Macheda is a former Italian junior international, but he has not been able to make the step-up to the senior team. He previously featured for the Italian u-16, u-17, u-19 and u-21 teams. His Italian u-21 debut came during the friendly game with Russia in 2009 while he was a Manchester United player. Macheda was the youngest player to make his debut for the Italian u-21 team at the time at the age of 17 years and 355 days. His first goals for the u-21 came against Turkey around a year after his debut.