Daniel Caligiuri (; born 15 January 1988) is a German professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Born in Germany to an Italian father of partial Arbëresh descent and a German mother, Caligiuri began his professional career with

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

. Caligiuri made his

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

debut for Freiburg on 7 November 2009, starting against

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seasons in the Bundeslig ...

. He joined

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

in 2013 after a solid season with Freiburg. On 19 March 2015, Caligiuri scored in the second leg of the round of 16 in the Europa League against

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...

. On 30 May 2015, he played as Wolfsburg won the German Cup for the first time defeating Borussia Dortmund 3–1 at the Olympic Stadium, Berlin. On 25 January 2017, Caligiuri was announced as joining Bundesliga rivals

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

on a three and a half year deal. On 29 June 2020, Caligiuri joined

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as ...

on a free transfer at the end of the 2019–20 season. He signed a three-year contract.

International career

Caligiuri is eligible to represent both

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

through being born there (and to a German mother), as well as

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

through having an Italian father. On 22 May 2015, Caligiuri expressed his desire to play for the country of his father's heritage, stating "I have always said that I will play for the national team which invites me first. And I have big hopes now to be part of the Italy squad." On 31 May 2015, it was announced that

Antonio Conte Antonio Conte (; born 31 July 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Playing as a midfielder, Conte began his career at local club Lecce and later ...

named Caligiuri alongside fellow débutant

Nicola Sansone Nicola Domenico Sansone (; born 10 September 1991) is an Italian footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Bologna. Born in Germany, he has represented the Italian national team. Club career Sansone was born in Munich in Germany and ...

in his preliminary squad for the upcoming

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

match against

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, but he was dropped from the squad on 6 June.

Personal life

Caligiuri is of Italian Arbereshë

descent Descent may refer to: As a noun Genealogy and inheritance * Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology * Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology **Pedigree chart or family tree ** Ancestry ** Lineal descendant **Heritag ...

. His older brother

Marco Marco may refer to: People * Marco (given name), people with the given name Marco * Marco (actor) (born 1977), South Korean model and actor * Georg Marco (1863–1923), Romanian chess player of German origin * Tomás Marco (born 1942), Spanish c ...

is a former professional footballer, who last played for Greuther Fürth.

Career statistics

Honours

SC Freiburg * A-Junioren Bundesliga (South/Southwest): 2005–06 * German Under-19 Cup: 2005–06 VfL Wolfsburg *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

: 2014–15 * DFL-Supercup: 2015

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caligiuri, Daniel 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Villingen-Schwenningen Footballers from Freiburg (region) German sportspeople of Italian descent German people of Albanian descent Italian people of Arbëreshë descent German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Bundesliga players Regionalliga players BSV 07 Schwenningen players SC Freiburg players VfL Wolfsburg players FC Schalke 04 players FC Augsburg players