rizza went through the juventus youth system, and, after graduating, was sold to juve stabia in the former italian serie c1 in a co-ownership deal. in june 2008, his co-ownership was resolved, and he returned to juventus for €50,000, but, along with several other youth players, was loaned out to serie b teams. rizza, along with francesco volpe, was sold on co-ownership deals to a.s. livorno calcio, who had recently been relegated to serie b following a poor serie a campaign. rizza made 7 league appearances for livorno during the 2008–09 serie b campaign.