Profile Fabio Quagliarella

Personal information

Full Name : Fabio Quagliarella
Date of birth : January 31, 1983
Place of birth : Castellammare di Stabia, Italy
Height : 1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Playing position : Striker
Current club : Juventus
(on loan from Napoli)
Number : 18
Youth career :
1994–2000 Torino
Senior career :
2000–2005 Torino
2002 → Fiorentina (loan)
2003–2004 → Chieti (loan)
2005–2009 Udinese
2005–2006 → Ascoli (co-ownership)
2006–2007 → Sampdoria (co-ownership)
2009– Napoli
2010– → Juventus (loan)
National team :
2000–2001 Italy U-17
2001 Italy U-19
2002–2004 Italy U-20
2004 Italy U-21
2007– Italy

Club career

Early career

Quagliarella started his career at Torino. He made his Serie A debut against Piacenza Calcio on 14 May 2000 and later made four appearances at Serie A 2001-02 season.

He was then sent on loan to lower division clubs Florentia Viola, at that time in Serie C2, and then Chieti. He returned to Torino in 2004, and scored eight goals in Serie B, plus one goal against Ascoli in the promotion playoff's first legs. But financial problems forced Torino to stay in Serie B, which allowed players to leave for free.

Udinese

Quagliarella joined Udinese on summer 2005, and the club sold half of the registration rights to newly promoted Ascoli, as part of a loan deal.

Quagliarella stayed at Ascoli for just a season, then was loaned to Sampdoria by the transfer of the Ascoli's half of the registration rights. During his time with the blucerchiati, Quagliarella scored 13 goals in the 2006–2007 season, plus one goal in seven matches in the 2006–07 Coppa Italia.

On 21 June 2007, Udinese took the full ownership of the player from Sampdoria by blind auction between the two clubs. On 5 July 2007, a 4-way swap was formed, which saw Quagliarella replaced Vincenzo Iaquinta (left on 19 June), and Sampdoria signed Andrea Caracciolo to replace Quagliarella on 22 June and Palermo signed Fabrizio Miccoli from Juventus on 5 July. He signed an improved contract along with Handanovič and Gyan due to expire on June 30, 2012. He played as a regular for the whole 2007–08 season, scoring a total 12 goals and achieving a place in the Italian squad for the Euro 2008 competition.

Napoli

On 1 June 2009, Quagliarella signed a five year deal with hometown club Napoli.

Juventus

On August 27, 2010, Quagliarella signed for Juventus on loan for a fee of €4.5 million and the Bianconeri will have the option to sign him permanently for €10.5m, paid over three years.

International career

Following his impressive performances with Sampdoria in 2006–07, Quagliarella was called up to the Azzurri squad for a friendly against Romania in February. However, it was delayed by the match cancellation due to fan riots in Serie A that weekend.

Later he played for the Azzurri in March for a Euro 2008 qualifier against Scotland, and made his debut as a substitute, replacing Luca Toni in the final minutes. In Kaunas on 6 June 2007, on his first start for Italy, he scored his first two goals for them in a 2–0 win over Lithuania in a vital Euro 2008 qualifier. On 6 February, he scored Italy's third goal in their 3–1 triumph over Portugal in an international friendly in Zurich. In June 2010 he scored a header against Switzerland in Italy's final friendly before the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

He was included in the Italian Euro 2008 squad and the Italian 2010 World Cup squad. During the second half of the 3-2 defeat to Slovakia in a Group F game at South Africa World Cup 2010, he executed a beautiful 25 yard chip to bring the score to 3-2. This match was also incidentally his 21st cap for Italy, having scored 5 goals for them since making his national team debut back in 2007