Pierluigi Gollini (born 18 March 1995) is an Italian 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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for club

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, on loan from

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

, and the Italy national team. Having graduated from

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

youth academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

, Gollini began his senior career with

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

in 2014 and joined

in 2018, having played for

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

in 2016.

Club career

Hellas Verona

Gollini joined

in 2014 from

. He 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 Coppa ...

debut on 24 September 2014 as a starter in a 2–2 home draw against

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

Aston Villa

After two seasons with Verona, Gollini signed for

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

club

on 8 July 2016. He made his first appearance for Aston Villa in an 8–0 friendly win over Austrian side

Grazer AK Grazer AK, founded 18 August 1902 as Grazer Athletiksport Klub (in Austria the abbreviation GAK is more common), is an Austrian sports club, from the city of Graz in the federal state of Styria (''Steiermark''). The football section used to be on ...

the following day. Gollini started the season as newly relegated Villa's first-choice goalkeeper under manager

Roberto Di Matteo Roberto Di Matteo (; born 29 May 1970) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. During his playing career as a midfielder, he played for Swiss clubs Schaffhausen, Zürich and Aarau before joining Lazio of Italy and Chels ...

; however, Villa struggled in the early parts of the campaign, with Gollini making notable errors against

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

and

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

. Di Matteo was sacked in early October and replaced by

Steve Bruce Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a centre-back. He most recently managed West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Br ...

, who continued to play Gollini until December. The Italian was dropped for the festive period games in favour of Mark Bunn, and on 5 January 2017, Villa brought goalkeeper Sam Johnstone in on loan from

, and he took over as first-choice goalkeeper.

Atalanta

On 13 January 2017, Gollini signed for Italian club

on an 18-month loan. On 10 June 2018, Gollini signed permanently for Atalanta for an undisclosed fee. He spent the first half of the year as backup to Etrit Berisha, however claimed the starting spot in the second half of the season. Berisha was loaned out the following summer, making Gollini the undisputed starter. Gollini started every match in Atalanta's debut season in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, as they finished second in their group, qualifying for the round of 16.

Tottenham Hotspur

On 24 July 2021, Gollini joined

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

on loan for the season. He made his debut for the club on 19 August 2021, starting in the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their ...

first leg tie against

Paços de Ferreira Paços de Ferreira () is a city in the Porto District, in the north of Portugal. The population of the city in 2011 was 7491, while its municipality had 56,340 inhabitants, in an area of 70.99 km². Sometimes referred to as the ''Capital do ...

, which ended in a 1–0 defeat. Gollini returned to his parent club Atalanta on 2 June 2022.

Fiorentina

On 9 July 2022, Gollini joined

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

on a season-long loan, with an option to buy. After starting the first three games of the 2022–23 Serie A season, Gollini moved to the bench, backing up Pietro Terracciano. Gollini was the first-choice goalkeeper for Fiorentina's

Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their ...

campaign, playing in five of their six group stage games.

Napoli

On 25 January 2023, Gollini moved to

on loan with an option to buy.

International career

Gollini made his debut with the Italy U21 team on 2 June 2016, in a 0–1 loss against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Gollini made his senior debut for

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 re ...

under manager

Roberto Mancini Roberto Mancini (; born 27 November 1964) is an Italian football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of the Italy national team. As a player, Mancini operated as a deep-lying forward, and was best known for his time at Samp ...

, on 15 November 2019, coming on as a late substitute for

Gianluigi Donnarumma Gianluigi Donnarumma (born 25 February 1999) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Italy national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in world footbal ...

in a 3–0 away win over

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

, in a Euro 2020 qualifier.

Personal life

In June 2018, under the pseudonym Gollorius, Gollini published a

rap music Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

single "''Rapper coi guanti''" (Rapper with gloves); he donated the proceeds to charity.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Napoli *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gollini, Pierluigi 1995 births Living people Footballers from Bologna Italian footballers Men's association football goalkeepers ACF Fiorentina players Manchester United F.C. players Hellas Verona FC players Aston Villa F.C. players Atalanta BC players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players SSC Napoli players Serie A players English Football League players Italy men's youth international footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Italy men's international footballers Italian expatriate footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England