Fabio Quagliarella

Fabio Quagliarella (Italian pronunciation: [ˈfabjo kwaʎʎaˈrɛlla]) (born 31 January 1983) is an Italian footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Juventus. He is known for scoring incredible goals from unconventional angles that often catch the goalkeeper by surprise.

Early Career

Quagliarella began his career at Torino, where he grew up in their youth sector. He made his Serie A debut for Torino against Piacenza on May 14, 2000, and later made four appearances in the following Serie A 2001-02 season. In 2002 and 2003, he was 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 seven goals in Serie B, plus one goal against Ascoli in the promotion playoff's first legs. However, financial problems forced Torino to stay in Serie B, which allowed Quagliarella to leave the club on a free transfer.

Udinese, Ascoli, Sampdoria

Quagliarella signed with Udinese in summer 2005. However, Udinese immediately sold half of his registration rights to newly promoted Ascoli as part of a co-ownership deal. Quagliarella stayed at Ascoli for just one season, scoring just 3 times in 33 Serie A appearances, and his rights were bought back in full by Udinese in June 2006.

On July 7, 2006, Udinese sold co-ownership of Quagliarella, along with Mirko Pieri, to Sampdoria in exchange for the transfer of Salvatore Foti During the 2006–2007 season with the blucerchiati, Quagliarella scored 13 goals in league play and earned attention worldwide due to the spectacular nature of many of his goals. His breakout season at Sampdoria led to a call-up to the Italian national team and numerous rumors of a high-profile transfer abroad.

Following his breakout 2006-07 season, Quagliarella was wanted by both Udinese and Sampdoria. The two clubs were been unable to comes to terms on his co-ownership deal and went to a blind auction on June 21, 2007. In the auction, Sampdoria bid €6.5 million, but were outbid by Udinese who paid €7.3 million to reclaim full ownership of Quagliarella. At Udinese, Quagliarella started the 2007–08 season slowly, scoring just once in the season's first 11 games. However, he soon found his footing at the club, forming a dangerous strike partnership with Antonio Di Natale and scoring a total of 12 goals in the 2007-08 season  This led to Quagliarella securing a place in the Italian squad for the Euro 2008 competition. Fabio continued his goal scoring at Udinese in the 2008–09 season, reaching 21 goals in all competitions, including 8 goals in the UEFA Cup where Udinese reached the quarter-finals.

Napoli

On June 1 2009, Quagliarella moved to his hometown club Napoli for a transfer fee of €18 million where he signed a 5 year deal.At Napoli, he was partnered with Ezequiel Lavezzi and attacking midfielder Marek Hamšík, and managed to score 11 goals in Serie A helping Napoli qualified to 2010–11 UEFA Europa League with a 6th place finish in the league. He played his last match for Napoli in Europa League, in a 1-0 win over IF Elfsborg. He was a unused bench in the second leg, which Walter Mazzarri used new signing Edinson Cavani partnered with Lavezzi, who the former scored a brace to make the team qualified.

Juventus

On 27 August 2010, Quagliarella signed for Juventus on loan for a fee of €4.5 million with the Bianconeri having the option to sign him permanently for €10.5m, paid over three years. Before the winter break, he was the team's top scorer with 9 league goals in 17 appearances. However, he was injured on 6 January 2011 (right knee anterior cruciate ligament), in the first match after the winter break, losing to Parma 1–4. He would miss the rest of season He was unable to play for Juventus in the Europa League, as he had already appeared against IF Elfsborg for Napoli earlier in the competition. On 22 June 2011 Quagliarella signed a 3 year deal to stay with Juventus for €10.5m, effectively cost Juve €15 million, €3million lesser than Napoli paid two years ago, but in accounting, gained €600,000 in 2010–11 fiscal result. (€15M minus contract residual value €14.4M [€18 million times 4 remain years over 5 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. Coach Marcello Lippi had only given him 45 minutes in one of Italy's most shameful world cup knockouts, in which Fabio managed to give teammate Antonio Di Natale a rebound goal, have a volley cleared off the line by Slovak defender Martin Škrtel, have an equalizing goal controversially ruled offside, and score the aforementioned wonder goal. 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.