Gaetano Caridi (born 22 July 1980) is an Italian former 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 le ...

who played 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 ...

Career

Caridi was born in

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria ( scn, label= Southern Calabrian, Riggiu; el, label= Calabrian Greek, Ρήγι, Rìji), usually referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria. It has an estimated popul ...

. He began his career playing for minor Tuscan club

Pontedera Pontedera (; la, Pons Herae) is an italian comune with a population of 29.270 inhabitants, located in the province of Pisa, Tuscany, Central Italy, central Italy. The town is located 20 km (12 miles) from Pisa and 50 km (31 miles) from Florenc ...

. He made his debut with the then-

Serie C2 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

club in 1999, aged 19, playing 22 matches and scoring four goals. He then earned a move to promotion chasing

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

side

Alzano Virescit Virtus CiseranoBergamo 1909 is an football in Italy, Italian association football club from Ciserano, Lombardy. It was born in 2019 as a merger of ''Ciserano Calcio'' and ''Virtus Bergamo'', itself a direct heir of ''Alzano Virescit'', a club th ...

, where he made 15 appearances before being loaned to

Avellino Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

in January 2001. With the ''biancoverdi'', he played 10 matches scoring three goals before returning at Alzano. After 15 league matches played for Alzano in the first half of the 2001–02 season, he was signed by

side

Mantova Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Europ ...

in January 2002 The 2002–03 season proved to be a turning point for the 22-year-old Caridi. He agreed to sign for free with Mantova and proved instrumental to make telling passes as Mantova came close to promotion. In 2003–04 Caridi made 32 appearances, scoring 8 goals as Mantova earned promotion to

. In 2004–05 Mantova earned promotion to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

at their first attempt, with Caridi helping to create many of the goals with his technique and vision, as well as scoring 10 goals. Mantova finish fourth, losing a third consecutive promotion on playoffs to

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, and Caridi scored 14 league goals in the process. In 2006–07 Caridi confirmed his qualities, scoring an impressive 11 goals in 35 matches, many of them coming from direct free kicks. In July 2010 he completed his move to Tuscan

team

U.S. Grosseto F.C. Unione Sportiva Grosseto 1912 is an Italian association football club, based in the city of Grosseto, Tuscany. The club was founded in 1912 as ''Unione Ginnico Sportiva Grossetana''. The team's most associated nickname is ''grifone'', after it ...

Caridi played his first match in pre-season friendly on 22 July. On 13 July 2012, Caridi joined newly promoted

club

F.C. Pro Vercelli 1892 Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven natio ...

on a free transfer. In January 2013 he signed an 18-month contract with

Cremonese Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' (Po Valley). It is the capital of the ...

; since the summer of 2014 he returned to the military in the

Coaching career

After retiring at the end of the 2018–19 season,

announced on 11 July 2019, that Caridi would become the assistant manager of

Alberto Gilardino Alberto Gilardino (; born 5 July 1982) is an Italian professional football manager and a former player who played as a striker. He is currently in charge as caretaker of Genoa, a club he was contracted with on July 2022 as a youth coach. A p ...

for the club's first team. He followed Gilardino as his assistant also at

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

, throughout the

2020–21 Serie D The 2020–21 Serie D was the seventy-third edition of the top level Italian non-professional football championship. It represents the fourth tier in the Italian football league system. Changes from 2019–20 A total 166 clubs were admitted to ...

and

2021–22 Serie C The 2021–22 Serie C is the eighth season of the unified Serie C division, the third tier of the Italian football league system. Changes The league is composed by 60 teams, divided into three different groups. On 31 May 2021, the league committee ...

seasons; they were both dismissed from their jobs on 24 October 2021.

References

External links

Caridi’s career details

Gaetano Caridi
at Soccerway {{DEFAULTSORT:Caridi, Gaetano 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Reggio Calabria Italian footballers Footballers from Calabria Association football midfielders Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players FC Chiasso players U.S. Città di Pontedera players Virtus Bergamo Alzano Seriate 1909 players U.S. Avellino 1912 players Mantova 1911 players F.C. Grosseto S.S.D. players F.C. Pro Vercelli 1892 players U.S. Cremonese players Italian expatriate footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Switzerland