Gaetano "Tanino" Vasari (born 9 January 1970 in Palermo) is an Italian former football

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

Vasari, a native of the Palermo neighbourhood of ''Borgo Vecchio'', started his playing career with Partinicaudace, a team from Partinico playing in the

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

. He then signed for Serie C1 club

Trapani Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an imp ...

in 1993, showing himself as one of the mainstays of the team which narrowly missed a historical promotion to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie 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 season. It had been ...

. However Vasari had the opportunity to play in the national second-highest division next year, as he was signed by

Acireale Acireale (; scn, Jaciriali, locally shortened to ''Jaci'' or ''Aci'') is a coastal city and ''comune'' in the north-east of the Metropolitan City of Catania, Sicily, southern Italy, at the foot of Mount Etna, on the coast facing the Ionian Sea. ...

. From 1995 to 1997 he then played in his native city for Palermo. In 1997, he signed for Cagliari, where he also made his

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

debut. The experience in Cagliari was followed by three seasons with

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

, staggered by a five-months stay at Lecce. In 2002, he moved to play for Serie C1 club

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and ''comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. ...

. In 2003, despite not a brilliant season in a lower division, Vasari proposed himself to Palermo, citing a promise made to his father's deathbed to bring Palermo back to Serie A; the club then accepted to sign him, with a salary proportional with the caps he would have gained with the first team. Despite not playing often, mainly only as a substitute, Vasari offered his experience to help Palermo to win the league and gain a spot in the Serie A for the first time in 31 years, and also scored the final goal in Palermo's successful Serie B campaign, in the final minutes of a home game against Bari. He then played for newly promoted Sicilian Serie C1 side Vittoria, and retired after a two-months stay at Trapani, after having been signed in March 2006 in a desperate and unsuccessful attempt to save the team from relegation to

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football. It is a regional league, composed of 28 divisions divided geographically. All 20 regions are represented by at least one division except for Piedmont and A ...

. Following his retirement from football, Tanino Vasari became owner of a

bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who w ...

of which he is also a cashier, located nearby the Stadio Renzo Barbera.Il Secolo XIX
/ref>

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasari, Gaetano 1970 births Living people Footballers from Palermo Italian footballers Palermo F.C. players Cagliari Calcio players U.C. Sampdoria players U.S. Lecce players A.C. Cesena players A.S.D. Calcio Club Vittoria 2020 players S.S.D. F.C. Trapani 1905 players Serie A players Serie B players Stroppa, Giovanni Footballers from Sicily