Antonio di Natale is a striker of Italian descent, who is currently without a contract with a club. However, there is a possibility that he will soon end his player’s career, as he is already 39 years old. Antonio di Natale takes the position of center forward. But throughout his career, he could come out as a winger and a drawn forward.
Carier start
Antonio di Natale was born on October 13, 1977 in Italy, in Naples. However, for a long time he did not play football professionally until he moved to the north. Then the young man decided to become a professional football player. At the age of 17, he joined the Empoli Club Academy. A year later, he signed a professional contract.
However, he first entered the field only when he was already 19 years old. It was evident that the player is not up to the club level, so in 1997 he was leased to the small team of Iperzola. There he played 33 matches, scoring 6 goals. Then di Natale went on a six-month lease at Varese, and after that at Viareggio. It was in the last club that he showed himself best: in 25 matches he scored 12 goals.
When in 1999, Antonio di Natale returned to Empoli, he was taken more seriously. In the first season, he appeared on the field 30 times, scoring seven goals. Starting next season, the striker became the player of the club's foundation. He spent the next four years there, playing another 147 matches and scoring 48 goals. In 2004, he was attracted by the larger Italian club Udinese, which acquired a player for a symbolic 100 thousand euros, which eventually became a legend.
The game in Udinese
What did Antonio di Natale show in Udinese? The statistics of the football player is impressive, since he spent 12 years in the club. And at the same time, it is worth paying attention to the fact that in all seasons except the last, he was a base player and a key figure on the field. In the first season, Antonio scored a total of 11 goals. But then he began to grow gradually, reaching a peak by 2010, when he managed to score 29 goals in 38 matches.
He repeated this achievement in 2012. Then he scored the same number of goals, but in 42 matches. Twice he got the title of best sniper of Series A. Once he was recognized as the best player of the year in Italy. Antonio collected many individual awards, but could not achieve great team success.
In all, over these 12 years, the Udinese striker played 446 matches, scoring 227 goals in them. Naturally, with such indicators di Natale is not only the best scorer in the history of the club, but also the player with the most number of matches played in the history of the team. It is unlikely that in the coming years someone will be able to break these records.
Team appearances
In the Italian national team, di Natale made his debut in 2002. At that time he was already 25 years old. Throughout his career, he spent only 43 matches, scoring 11 goals. His first major tournament was the European Championship, held in 2008. Then he entered the field in two of four matches. At the World Cup in 2010, he had already played all three games, scoring a goal against the Slovak team. The last tournament for the national team for Antonio was the European Championship in 2012. He reached the finals, distinguishing himself with one goal against the Spaniards.