Andrea Caracciolo

Andrea Caracciolo

Personal information
Date of birth	18 September 1981 (1981-09-18)
Place of birth	Milan, Italy
Height	1.94 m (6 ft 4 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Novara (on loan from Genoa)
Number	29
Youth career
1998–2000	Sancolombano
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2000–2001	Como	0	(0)
2001	Pro Vercelli	10	(0)
2001–2005	Brescia	72	(26)
2002–2003	→ Perugia (loan)	22	(2)
2005–2007	Palermo	62	(14)
2007–2008	Sampdoria	12	(1)
2008–2011	Brescia	99	(51)
2011–	Genoa	12	(1)
2012–	→ Novara (loan)	7	(1)
National team
2002	Italy U-20	2	(1)
2002–2004	Italy U-21	10	(1)
2004–2006	Italy	2	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15 January 2012. † Appearances (Goals).

Andrea Caracciolo (born 18 September 1981) is an Italian footballer who plays for Novara in the Serie A.

Career

His first football appearances were for Sancolombano of Italian Serie D (amateur league); later playing for Como and Pro Vercelli, both in professional leagues, before being signed by Brescia, the team in which he made his Serie A debut on 6 January 2002, against Bologna.

During the 2002–2003 Serie A season he played for Perugia, before returning to Brescia, scoring 12 goals at the end of the 2003–2004 season.

Palermo

After the relegation of Brescia, he was signed by Palermo on 1 July 2005, for €9 million., with €3 million being converted to the signing of Davide Possanzini. He soon became Luca Toni's replacement, who left for Fiorentina. In the 2005–2006 season, Caracciolo played 35 games, scoring 9 goals. In the next season, Caracciolo has limited chance since the arrival of Amauri and David Di Michele. He scored only 5 goals in 27 matches, and made 17 starts.

Sampdoria

In June 2007 was sold to Sampdoria in a co-ownership bid, for €4.25 million. as their centre forward Emiliano Bonazzoli is recovering from injury, Francesco Flachi, Fabio Bazzani and Fabio Quagliarella all left the club. That month also saw Caracciolo replaced Quagliarella, Quagliarella replaced Vincenzo Iaquinta and Fabrizio Miccoli replaced Caracciolo. Moreover, Sampdoria and Palermo formed numbers of swap deal in 2006 summer transfer windows, made there was a net debt of about €2.2 million from Palermo to Sampdoria on 30 June 2007 (without counting Caracciolo; or exactly €3.5 million ca in July 2006);, made the signing of Caracciolo again involved little cash.

He faced competition with Claudio Bellucci, Antonio Cassano and fit again Bonazzoli, which he made only 6 starts.

Brescia

On 31 January 2008 Caracciolo agreed to return to Brescia in a permanent transfer, for €7.05 million, with Sampdoria received half of the transfer fee (€3.55 million) Yet, instead of receiving cash, Sampdoria signed Morris Donati and Mattia Mustacchio in co-ownership deal for €300,000 and €700,000 respectively and rested of the credit was used for signing Marius Stankevičius (€3M) in early July.

Genoa

In 2011–12 Serie A, Caracciolo was signed by Genoa C.F.C. which the club was searching for a reliable centre forward for years; Genoa also failed to sign Antonio Floro Flores early in June and sell Sergio Floccari after the expire of loan. However Caracciolo failed to meet the demand of the management team.

Novara

In January 2012 Genoa signed Italian internationals Alberto Gilardino and Rodrigo Palacio was recovered. It made Caracciolo no room in starting eleven. Caracciolo was loaned to Serie A struggler Novara (18th at that time), re-joining another Genoa forward Riccardo Meggiorini. He scored his first goal on 12 February, marking the winner in a 1–0 shock exploit at Stadio San Siro against Inter.

International career

Caracciolo played for the Italy U-21 team, with whom he won a European U-21 Championship in 2004. He also earned a call-up to the 2002 squad.

In November 2004, he made his debut for the Italian national team in a friendly match against Finland.

On August 16, 2006 he was recalled to the Azzurri squad by new coach Roberto Donadoni for a friendly game against Croatia, replacing Cristiano Lucarelli in 65th minute.

External links

• Caracciolo's profile from Sampdoria official website (Italian)