Marco Gabbiadini
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Marco Gabbiadini | ||
| Date of birth | 20 January 1968 | ||
| Place of birth | Nottingham, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Poppleton Juniors | |||
| 1984–1985 | York City | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1985–1987 | York City | 60 | (14) |
| 1987–1991 | Sunderland | 152 | (74) |
| 1991–1992 | Crystal Palace | 15 | (5) |
| 1992–1997 | Derby County | 188 | (50) |
| 1996 | → Birmingham City (loan) | 2 | (0) |
| 1997 | → Oxford United (loan) | 5 | (1) |
| 1997 | Panionios | 11 | (4) |
| 1997–1998 | Stoke City | 8 | (0) |
| 1998 | → York City (loan) | 8 | (1) |
| 1998–2000 | Darlington | 82 | (47) |
| 2000–2003 | Northampton Town | 120 | (25) |
| 2003–2004 | Hartlepool United | 15 | (5) |
| Total | 665 | (226) | |
| National team | |||
| 1989 | England U21 | 2 | (0) |
| 1990 | England B | 1 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
|||
Marco Gabbiadini (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko ɡabbjaˈdiːni] (born 20 January 1968) is an English former footballer whose career lasted 18 years from 1985 to 2003. He played for 12 different clubs, scoring a total of 226 league goals.
Gabbiadini was born to an English mother and an Italian father in Nottingham, and was educated at Nunthorpe Grammar School in York. He started his professional career at York City after being signed as an apprentice by Denis Smith at the age of 16 in 1982. His talent was spotted immediately and shortly afterwards he was quickly drafted into the England under-18 team in order to avoid being tied to playing for Italy, the birthplace of his father. By the time Gabbiadini was 17 he had made his York City debut in a 3−0 defeat to Bolton Wanderers. From then on he quickly established himself in the first team and went on to notch 18 goals in 50 starts and 21 sub appearances for the Minstermen. He also scored his first hat-trick at the age of 18 during York's 4−1 Freight Rover Trophy victory against Darlington.
However the departure of manager and mentor Denis Smith would see him leave York in order to follow Denis Smith to Sunderland for a transfer fee of £80,000 on 23 September 1987. Sunderland had been relegated to the Third Division and needed a goalscorer to help fire them back to the Second Division and Gabbiadini was seen by Smith as the perfect signing. Despite this Gabbiadini's signing was seen as risky, as in order to raise funds to sign him, Smith had to sell one of Sunderland's most popular players, midfielder Mark Proctor, to Sheffield Wednesday. Gabbiadini made his Sunderland debut in a 2−0 defeat to Chester City at Roker Park. His first goals for Sunderland would come only three days later in a 3−0 victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage as he scored twice, a feat he would match in the next two games. He would quickly establish himself as a key player and a crowd favourite for Sunderland by scoring on a regular basis, and is known in Wearside folklore as part of The G-Force thanks to the partnership he struck up with Eric Gates. In his first season at the club Gabbiadini scored 21 goals in 35 league appearances to help fire Sunderland to the Third Division championship and he became such an important player that manager Denis Smith once said, "If I agreed to sell Marco, then I might as well sack myself".
...
Wikipedia