Alberto Gilardino (Italian pronunciation: [alˈbɛrto dʒilarˈdiːno]; born 5 July 1982) is an Italian professional football manager and a former player who played as a striker; who was most recently the head coach of Serie B 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.
Gilardino was also involved in a car accident which ruled him out of the season on 28 April 2001: a truck crossed his car off the road and ended up in the river Sile, but he managed to abandon it before it sank. However, a fracture of the sternum ruled him out of the rest of the season. Gilardino, not yet 20 years old, scored 5 goals in 39 matches in two seasons at Verona.
Gilardino's career was launched on the international stage in 2002, as Parma purchased the remained 50% of his registration rights and returned Šerić to Verona. The move was strongly requested by then Parma coach Cesare Prandelli. Later, Adrian Mutu, Gilardino's teammate at Verona, was also signed, to replace the departing Marco Di Vaio. However, Mutu and Adriano started most of Parma's matches in the 2002–03 Serie A, relegating Gilardino to the substitutes' bench. Gilardino nonetheless made 24 league appearances and scored four goals, as well as one goal in the Coppa Italia.
In the 2003–04 season, Gilardino scored 23 goals in Serie A, 17 of which came in the second half of the season, also thanks to the return of Adriano to Internazionale. Gilardino's 23 goals placed him second in Serie A for the season, behind Andriy Shevchenko's 24. Gilardino also scored three goals in the UEFA Cup. The player credited his manager Cesare Prandelli for helping him to grow technically. Gilardino's success at club and U-21 level earned him a contract extension until June 2007.
In his third championship in Parma (2004–05), he repeated this feat, scoring another 23 goals in the league and finishing as the second-best scorer in Serie A once again, preceded by Cristiano Lucarelli's 24. He scored in a playoff match against Bologna, bringing his total haul to 24 goals. He also scored once in the UEFA Cup. He scored 51 goals for Parma in only 97 appearances in Serie A.
On 17 July 2005, Gilardino made a €25 million transfer to Milan, acquiring the number 11 shirt. He scored his first goal for the Rossoneri in a match against Sampdoria. He would finish the 2005–06 season with 17 goals in 34 Serie A appearances and two goals in three appearances in the Coppa Italia, but he failed to find his offensive form in Milan's 2005–06 UEFA Champions League campaign, going goal-less in all 12 matches.
In the 2006–07 season, Gilardino's scored his first UEFA Champions League goal on 1 November 2006, in a 4–1 win against Anderlecht. His European offensive output the next season was equally disappointing, with only two goals. However, one of his two goals helped Milan seal a decisive 3–0 win over Manchester United in the second leg of the semi-finals on 3 May 2007, which put them back into the Champions League final and set up a rematch with Liverpool. He played only two minutes as a substitute for Filippo Inzaghi in Milan's 2–1 victory.
Gilardino led Milan in 2006–07 Serie A scoring with 12 goals; no other Milan player hit double figures. At the end of the season, he revealed in an interview to feel challenged, to experience bitterness at not having played the Champions League final won by Milan, and was considering the possibility of leaving Milan. However, following a clarification with management, he decided to stay.
Gilardino contributed a brace in Milan's 5–1 defeat of Lazio on 7 October 2007 (which marked his first domestic goal following a double in Milan's 5–2 victory over Ascoli on 18 April), and likewise for his first Champions League brace netting of the season in a 4–1 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk on 24 October. In the second half of the season, Gilardino was often left on the substitutes' bench by manager Carlo Ancelotti, to be relegated to third striker behind Inzaghi and Alexandre Pato. Later, Gilardino described the last few months spent at Milan as the worst of his career, while stressing the positive aspects of his experience in Milan and his estimate for the Rossoneri.
With Milan, Gilardino was considered a strong front man who was adept at holding the ball and leading attacks.
On 25 May 2008, Fiorentina sporting director Pantaleo Corvino confirmed a deal to sign Gilardino from Milan had been completed. On 28 May, the deal was confirmed from the official website of the Rossoneri: Gilardino moved for €15 million and signed a five-year deal. At Fiorentina, Gilardino was reunited by former Parma teammates Adrian Mutu, Sébastien Frey and Marco Donadel, as well as his former manager at Parma, Cesare Prandelli.