Antonio Di Natale
Di Natale pictured in 2012
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Antonio Di Natale | ||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 13 October 1977 | ||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Naples, Italy | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Playing position | Striker | ||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||
| 1994–1996 | Empoli | ||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||
| 1996–2004 | Empoli | 158 | (49) | ||||||||||||
| 1997–1998 | → Iperzola (loan) | 33 | (6) | ||||||||||||
| 1998 | → Varese (loan) | 5 | (0) | ||||||||||||
| 1998–1999 | → Viareggio (loan) | 25 | (12) | ||||||||||||
| 2004–2016 | Udinese | 385 | (191) | ||||||||||||
| Total | 606 | (258) | |||||||||||||
| National team | |||||||||||||||
| 2002–2012 | Italy | 42 | (11) | ||||||||||||
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Honours
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| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15 May 2016. |
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Antonio 'Totò' Di Natale (Italian pronunciation: [anˈtɔnjo di naˈtale]; born 13 October 1977) is a former Italian footballer who last played as a forward for Italian club Udinese in 2016.
After being a member of the Empoli youth side since 1994, Di Natale started his professional career with the Empoli senior side in 1996, and remained with the club until 2004, aside from brief loan spells with Iperzola, Varese, and Viareggio. During his time with Empoli, he helped the club to achieve Serie A promotion during the 2001–02 Serie B season, scoring 16 goals. His breakthrough subsequently came during the 2002–03 Serie A season, as he scored 13 goals in the league and helped Empoli avoid relegation; despite being unable to find the net as regularly or save Empoli from relegation the following season, his performances and consistent goalscoring earned him a transfer to Udinese in 2004.
During his time with Udinese, Di Natale's skill, leadership and ability to both score and create many goals played a key role in helping the club to third and fourth-place finishes in Serie A, and achieve UEFA Champions League qualification. In 2007, he was named the club's captain. Di Natale's consistent goalscoring with Udinese saw him reach double figures for nine consecutive league seasons; he won the Serie A top goalscorer award in 2010 and 2011, and was also awarded the Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year award for his performances in 2010. A late bloomer, unlike most strikers, he enjoyed his most prolific seasons in front of goal well after the age of 30; between 2009 and 2011, Lionel Messi (82) and Cristiano Ronaldo (86) were the only two players to have scored more goals than Di Natale (67). In 2015, France Football rated him as one of the 10 best footballers in the world who are over the age of 36.
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