It has all the rigmarole of youth teams, from young students: the coach of the time, Luigi Pasetti, employed him as a central striker and the player scored 37 goals in the league before switching back to defense.

He made his Serie A debut on 29 August 1999, when Bari lost 1-0 to Fiorentina 1–0, where Ferrari played the full match.

He went back to Inter in summer 2000,[5] making 27 appearances in all competition, but failed to stay, this time sold to Parma in co-ownership deal, for 9 billion lire (€4,648,112).

[6][7] That season Parma also signed Sébastien Frey from Internazionale for 40 billion lire[7] (€20,658,275; cash plus Sérgio Conceição) and sold Gianluigi Buffon and Lilian Thuram to Juventus.

[11][12][13] (Part of the fee paid via Damiano Ferronetti going in the opposite direction[12] and the loan of Cesare Bovo on the same day[12]), as a replacement of Walter Samuel who went to Real Madrid.

Ferrari came back to Roma at the beginning of the season 2006–07 as Roma finished 2nd in the previous season and qualified for 2006–07 UEFA Champions League group stage (benefited due to the scandal) and was first choice central-back partnered with Philippe Mexès, while Cristian Chivu as leftback or centre-back and Christian Panucci as the primary right-back, with Marco Cassetti as replacement.

His erratic performance and poor security that has given in defense earned him the nickname Svirgolone as he could not show the same brilliant game during his time at Parma.

Despite facing a transfer ban blocking Roma from signing players,[15] on 24 August 2005, the Giallorossi loaned him to UEFA Champions League competitor Everton for €200,000, with an option to purchase for €5.5 million.

[19] Following his move to Genoa, Ferrari made his debut in the opening game of the season on 31 August 2008 in a 1–0 loss against Catania.

Ferrari received a red card in a 1–1 draw against Catania (the club he played against on his debut on a Genoa shirt) on 25 January 2009 after a second bookable offence.

At Genoa, Ferrari played under coach Gian Piero Gasperini and was a regular player in defense.

[23] Following time away from Beşiktaş, Ferrari began training with Monza in Lega Pro Prima Divisione from 12 November 2011, until the end of December.

[32] On 11 May 2013, in a game against Real Salt Lake, Ferrari scored an own goal in the seventh minute to give RSL an early 1–0 lead.

[33] Although he was also eligible to represent Algeria at international level, Ferrari chose to play for the Italy national football team.

He played his first competitive international for Italy in a Euro 2004 qualifying match against Azerbaijan, replacing Alessandro Nesta for the last 14 minutes.

He was called up for Euro 2004 by manager Giovanni Trapattoni, but did not play in the tournament; Italy suffered a group-stage elimination, following a three-way five-point tie with Denmark and Sweden.