[1] Portin had represented Ascoli and Padova of Serie B, the second-tier league of football in Italy.
[12] In August 2011 Padova acquired Portin outright for €450,000;[13] Gianluca Giovannini also moved to Ascoli for free.
[13][14] In June 2012, days before the closing of the financial year of Parma on 30 June (Padova ended the financial year on 31 December), Parma signed Portin in co-ownership deal for a nominal account value of €2 million,[15][16] in 3-year contract; co-currently Padova signed Niccolò Galli also in co-ownership deal for €2 million,[15][16] thus a pure player exchange deal.
However it also counter-weight by the financial income of €2 million as Parma did not have to pay for the remain 50% registration rights.
[24][25] His older brother Jens is also a professional footballer, previously[26] representing Gefle IF[27][28] in Sweden.