Alberto Gilardino

Alberto Gilardino Ufficiale OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [alˈbɛrto dʒilarˈdiːno]; born 5 July 1982) is an Italian professional football manager and a former player who played as a striker. He is the head coach of Serie A club Pisa.

A prolific goalscorer, in Gilardino's early career, he was compared to Filippo Inzaghi due to his opportunism, positional sense and eye for goal. Gilardino currently holds the record for being the tenth-youngest player to have scored 100 goals in Serie A, a feat which he managed at the age of 26 years and 105 days. With 188 Serie A goals, Gilardino is currently among the top 10 all-time scorers in Serie A history. His trademark goal celebration saw him get to his knees and play an imaginary violin.

Gilardino has played for several Italian clubs throughout his career. He first came to prominence during his time at Parma due to his consistent goalscoring, which earned him the Serie A Young Footballer of the Year Award in 2004, followed by the Serie A Footballer of the Year and the Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year Awards in 2005, as well as a move to AC Milan. With Milan, he won the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League, the 2007 UEFA Super Cup and the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup. Gilardino has also played for Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande, with whom he won the 2014 Chinese Super League.

Gilardino has represented Italy at under-19, under-20, under-21, and senior levels. Gilardino was a part of the Italian side that won the 2004 UEFA Under-21 Championship, where he became the tournament's leading goalscorer. He was also named as the best player of the tournament, and one of two strikers in the UEFA Team of the Tournament. Later that year, he also won a bronze medal with Italy at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He is the all-time top scorer of the Italy U-21 national team with 19 goals in 30 appearances. At senior level, he was part of the 2006 FIFA World Cup-winning squad, and has also participated at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, the 2010 World Cup and the 2013 Confederations Cup, where he won a bronze medal. In his career Gilardino scored 432 goals.

Resident from birth to Cossato, in the province of Biella, Gilardino started playing with Cossatese, with whom he remained until the Under-15 category of Juniors.

After another year in the youth of ASD Junior Biellese Libertas under the guidance of Luca Prina, Gilardino went to Piacenza. The coach Luigi Simoni gave him his debut in Serie A at age 17, on 6 January 2000, against AC Milan. The season ended with the Piacenza's relegation to Serie B, but Gilardino still managed to make an impact by scoring 3 goals in 17 matches.

In September 2000, "Gila", as he is often nicknamed and already considered a talent, was sold to Hellas Verona in co-ownership, for 7 billion Italian lire (€3,615,198). Despite his young age, he scored five goals in his two seasons at the club where he made 39 league appearances. Gilardino attracted Verona to sign him in full in June 2001, for 8.5 billion lire. (€4,389,884).

Gilardino was bought by Parma in a co-ownership deal during the 2001–02 season for 9.5 billion lire (€4,906,341) and loaned back to Verona. At Verona, Gilardino played two seasons under the guidance of Attilio Perotti, and then Alberto Malesani.