In 2003, he was loaned out to Serie B side Ancona, to gain experience. After finding playing time limited at Ancona, he was loaned out to Serie A outfit Parma. With Parma, he found more success and plenty of first team action. In 2005 Inter loaned him out to another Serie A side. This time it was Chievo. After another decent campaign, Spanish side Mallorca wanted to bring Potenza out to La Liga. Again, Inter opted to loan him out. After yet another fairly impressive season, he caught the eye of Serie A side Fiorentina, who wanted to bring the player back to Italy.
In 2006, Fiorentina made a bid for the player, and Inter decided to sell the young talent, for €1.25 million. In his early stages with the Tuscan team, he found plenty of playing time, and even some first team action. During the 2007/2008 Serie A season, Potenza found playing time very hard to find and was seldom used in the starting XI. In the summer of 2008, Fiorentina decided to sell the player to Genoa CFC. In the first half of the 2008/2009 Serie A season, Potenza also found playing time hard to come by with the Genoa based team.
During the 2009 winter transfer market, Potenza was seeking a transfer away from Liguria, and on 31 January 2009, it was confirmed that Potenza had joined Calcio Catania, in a co-ownership deal. He was brought in to strengthen the defensive line of the southern team who were pushing for UEFA Cupfootball. As a result of his arrival, Gennaro Sardo was sent out on loan from Catania to relegation battlers Chievo Verona. Potenza instantly earned his starting place under then-coach Walter Zenga, and began the new season as a starter under Gianluca Atzori, but after a mid-season injury, the right back failed to obtain regular first team action in the team under coach Siniša Mihajlović, who led Catania from 20th to 12th in the Serie A league table in his first 5 months in charge. In August 2011, Catania signed the full ownership of the right back, and he would go on to make 20 league appearances for the club that season. During the 2011–12 Serie A season, under Vincenzo Montella, and the 2012–13 Serie A campaign, under Rolando Maran, the former Italy youth international has struggled for game time, appearing just 11 times in league competition over the course of those two seasons. Catania has broken the club's all-time points record total in the five consecutive seasons that Potenza has been with the team.
International career
Potenza has 9 caps with the Italy U-19 team, as well as 2 caps for the Italy U-20 team. His international career took off with the Italy U-21 team, where he made a total of 27 appearances, along with having the delite of scoring a single goal.
Coaching career
In August 2018, he was hired as head coach of Fidelis Andria in Serie D. On 29 July 2019, he moved to Audace Cerignola, also in Serie D.
