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Fabio QuagliarellaItalian footballer, forward
Date of Birth: 31.01.1983
Country:  Italy |
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Biography of Fabio Quagliarella
Fabio Quagliarella is an Italian footballer and striker for the club Sampdoria. He was born in the small town of Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples. Since childhood, he has been a fan of Napoli and often talks about the extraordinary football atmosphere in Naples during the time of Diego Maradona.
Early Career
Quagliarella began his football career at the age of 17 with Torino, making his debut in a Serie A match against Piacenza. However, he spent the next 6 years balancing between the bench and loan spells. During this time, he only played 5 Serie A matches and even played in Serie C2 for Fiorentina, scoring only one goal. He began to regularly score goals for Chieti, who were playing in Serie C1 at the time, with 17 goals in a season.
Returning to Turin, Quagliarella scored 8 goals in one season in Serie B. However, due to financial difficulties, Torino, who remained in Serie B, allowed players to leave for free.
Rise to Fame
In the summer of 2005, Fabio joined Udinese and the club sold 50% of his rights to Ascoli. He played only one season for Ascoli, scoring 3 goals in 33 league matches. The turning point came in the following season when he played for Sampdoria, also on loan, but it is worth noting that the club from Genoa owned 50% of the player's rights. Initially, Quagliarella was considered a reserve for Flachi, Bonazzoli, and Bazzani, making his first start in the 7th round. In the same match, he scored a brace and became the main force of Sampdoria. In total, Fabio scored 14 goals that season (13 in Serie A and one in the cup), gaining attention throughout Italy. He attracted not only with his goals but also with his playing style, showcasing his agility and desire to score beautiful goals, sometimes from the most incredible positions. Soon, he made his debut for the Italian national team.
Many top clubs, including Manchester United, Juventus, and the Milan clubs, showed interest in the player who was not widely known in Italy. Sampdoria's management immediately declared that they would not sell the player, but Fabio's agent, Stefano Antonelli, stated that the player could be sold, but not for less than 11 million pounds. Manchester United kept increasing the price for the forward, but then representatives from Udinese announced that they still owned 50% of the player's rights. Udinese and Sampdoria expressed their readiness to fully buy out Quagliarella's transfer. In such disputed moments, both teams submit closed bids to the main office of the Italian league, stating how much they are willing to pay their competitors for 50% of the rights. It soon became known that Udinese's offer was more generous, agreeing to pay 7 million euros for Quagliarella. Meanwhile, Chelsea also became interested in the forward. In interviews, the player spoke about his dream of playing for a club like Juventus or Manchester United. But in the end, due to various reasons, he stayed at Udinese.
Success at Udinese and Juventus
Quagliarella had two very good seasons at Udinese but had some issues with consistency. In Serie A, he scored 25 goals in 73 matches. Things went even better in the UEFA Cup 2008-2009, where Quagliarella finished 3rd in the top scorers race, behind Wagner and Olic (1st and 2nd place respectively). On June 1, 2009, he signed a 5-year contract with Napoli.
At the end of the 2009/10 season, Kazan's Rubin and St. Petersburg's Zenit expressed interest in Fabio. On June 14, 2010, the Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Rubin had made an offer to acquire Napoli striker Fabio Quagliarella. The Kazan club valued the transfer of the 27-year-old player at €25 million.
On August 27, 2010, Quagliarella moved to Juventus on loan. He made his debut for the bianconeri on August 29, 2010, in an away match against Bari. On September 12, 2010, he scored his first goal for Juventus in a home match against Sampdoria. Gradually, Fabio became the leader of the Juventus attack, scoring 9 goals in the league before the winter break. However, on January 6, 2011, in a home match against Parma, he suffered a serious knee injury (ruptured cruciate ligament) after a collision with Parma defender Gabriel Paletta and was sidelined for the rest of the season. On June 22, 2011, Juventus announced that they had signed a three-year contract with the player, and his transfer was bought from Napoli for €10.5 million, payable over three years.
Thanks to his outstanding performances for Sampdoria, Quagliarella received a call-up to the national team and made his debut in a match against Scotland, coming on as a substitute for Luca Toni. In Kaunas on June 6, 2007, in a match against the Lithuanian national team, he started and scored his first two goals for Italy in an important Euro 2008 qualification match. On February 6, 2008, he scored his third goal for Italy in a friendly match against Portugal, which ended in an 8-3 victory for Italy.
