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Fabio Quagliarella - Player Profile
Posted - 9th February 2008
Fabio Quagliarella was back in the news this week, thanks to his goal against Portugal in a mid-week friendly match, which contributed to the solid 3-1 win. It was his third goal for Italy in just eight appearances.
The twenty-five year old striker Quagliarella, born in the Province of Napoli, currently plays Serie A football with Udinese, though he started his first-team football in 2000 with Torino (with whose youth-team he started his career). His start at Toro was far from auspicious, though, with just five appearances and no goals scored. The general impression of him was as a talented player, but one with problems finishing. It didn't help, presumably, that he was at the club at the same time as one of their all-time scorers Marco Ferrante (who scored 18 goals during 2000 for the 'granata').
In 2002 he was put on loan to the newly formed Fiorentina Viola, a new Fiorentina formation competing in Serie C2 after the old club had been first relegated to Serie B, and subsequently declared bankrupt. A difficult time for any player, particularly given that just two seasons before Fiorentina had played host to players like Batistuta, Rui Costa, and Toldo. It did, though, mean more first-team appearances and an opportunity to show his stuff. Unfortunately, in twelve appearances he scored in just one. A record that wasn't enough to keep him at the club, and thus he found himself passed on to Abruzzo club Chieti, then playing in Serie C-1. Chieti is a small club, founded in 1922, with a long-history spent mostly bouncing between the lower-level leagues.
In his two seasons with Chieti, though, Quagliarella found better form, with 43 appearances and 19 goals scored - culminating in Chieti's promotion to Serie B. His form was enough to convince Torino to bring him back to Turin - who in the meantime had hit on leaner times, with a series of relegations to Serie B. Quagliarella found more of a place in the squad than previously. Quagliarella was, by the 2004-2005 season being courted by a number of the smaller Serie-A clubs, and chose to move to Ascoli, where he was guarenteed a starting place in the team.
Quagliarella shone brilliantly at Ascoli, a team that few predicted would save themselves from relegation and at the same time score some impressive scalps such as a victory against giants AS Roma, and a well-deserved draw against AC Milan. Qualgiarella shone, but scored few goals (3 in total).
At the end of the 2005-2006 season it looked as if Quagliarella would take his place in the Udinese squad (who had bought the player from Torino in 2005) alongside strikers Vincenzo Iaquinta and Antonio Di Natale. Instead Sampdoria came up with a player-sharing deal with Udinese, which saw them cede Salvatore Foti in return for midfield/striker Mirko Pieri and Qualgiarella for a season. At this point in his career Qualgiarella had an unexpected turn of luck. He wasn't expected to be a first choice player for the Genoan team, but thanks to the disqualification of Francesco Flachi (for his part in a betting scandal) and injury issues with Fabio Bazzani, Quagliarella found himself playing for the whole season. It's fair to say that his talent flourished at Sampdoria and he scored a number of spectacular goals from a varied amount of positions. (one particularly memorable one from midfield against Chievo). His goal tally may have even been higher (13 in total) had Walter Novellino not chosen to concentrate him on the wing for much of the season.
Talks between Sampdoria and Udinese to continue Qualgiarella's stay at Sampdoria broke down though for the 2007 season, and despite rumours of a transfer to either Arsenal or Manchester United, the player found himself moving to Udinese where his good form has continued. In addition, he has found a place in the National squad under Roberto Donadoni who debuted him in March of 2007. Since then he's played 8 games, and scored some great goals.
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