Roberto Gagliardini (; born 7 April 1994) 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 le ...

who plays as a defensive midfielder for club

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

Club career

Atalanta and loan spells

Born in

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

to physical education teacher and a Sicilian mother, Gagliardini began his career at hometown club

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 ...

playing for their youth teams and later for the reserves. He was promoted to the first-team squad for the 2013–14 season. On 4 December 2013, Gagliardini made his professional debut, starting in a 2–0 home win over

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; egl, label=Modenese dialect, Modenese, Sasól ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town ...

, for the campaign's

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

Loan to Cesena

On 17 January 2014, he was loaned 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 ...

side

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

with a 6-month loan deal. On 25 January he made his debut for Cesena as a substitute, replacing Guido Marilungo in the 74th minute and one minute later he scored his first career goal in a 3–1 away win over

Varese Varese ( , , or ; lmo, label= Varesino, Varés ; la, Baretium; archaic german: Väris) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 has reached 80,559. It is the c ...

. On 2 February, Gagliardini played his first full match for Cesena, a 1–1 away draw against

Virtus Lanciano S.S. Virtus Lanciano 1924 is an Italian association football club, based in Lanciano, Abruzzo. It last played in Serie B in 2015–16 as Virtus Lanciano. Virtus Lanciano now competes in youth football only. History The club was founded in ...

. On 6 June, Gagliardini was sent-off with a double yellow card in the 67th minute of a 1–0 away win against

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

. Gagliardini ended his 6-month loan to Cesena with 21 apeparences, including 16 as a starter, and 1 goal. He helped the team win promotion to Serie A.

Loan to Spezia

On 1 September 2014, he was loaned to

side Spezia on a season-long loan deal. On 7 September he made his debut for Spezia as a substitute replacing Juri Cisotti in the 68th minute of a 2–1 home win over Frosinone. On 24 January 2015, Gagliardini played his first entire match for Spezia and he scored his first goal in the 55th minute of a 1–1 away draw against Frosinone. Gagilardini ended his season-long loan to Spezia with 14 appearances and 1 goal.

Loan to Vicenza

On 29 July 2015, Gagliardini moved to

side Vicenza on loan, with an option to purchase. On 9 August he made his debut for Vicenza in the second round of Coppa Italia in a match won at penalty 4–2 against

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

. On 15 August, Gagliardini played in the third round of Coppa Italia, he was replaced by Giovanni Sbrissa in the 78th minute of a 1–0 away win over

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

. On 6 September he made his Serie B debut for Vicenza in a 1–0 away win against

. On 27 October, Gagilardini scored his first goal for Vicenza in the 24th minute of a 2–1 away win over Trapani. On 3 December he played in the fourth round of Coppa Italia in a 2–1 away defeat against

Carpi Carpi may refer to: Places * Carpi, Emilia-Romagna, a large town in the province of Modena, central Italy * Carpi (Africa), a city and former diocese of Roman Africa, now a Latin Catholic titular bishopric People * Carpi (people), an ancie ...

, he was replaced in the 64th minute by

Salvatore D'Elia Salvatore D'Elia (born 10 February 1989) is an Italian footballer who plays as a left-back for Chieri in the Italian Serie D. Club career Juventus D'Elia started his career working his way through the Juventus youth ranks since , before he ma ...

. Gagliardi finished his loan to Vicenza with 19 appearances and 1 goal.

Return to Atalanta

On 15 May 2016, he made his Serie A debut with Atalanta in a 2–1 away win over Genoa, on the final match-day of the 2015–16 season. The first half of the following season, he was promoted to the starting line-up, making 13 more league appearances for the club.

Inter Milan

On 11 January 2017, Gagliardini joined Inter Milan on loan, with an obligation to buy in the summer of 2018. He was presented two days later, where he was assigned the squad number 5 (previously worn by

Felipe Melo Felipe Melo de Carvalho (born 26 June 1983), known as Felipe Melo, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Fluminense. He began his career with Campeonato Brasileiro Série A teams Flamengo, Cruzeiro a ...

, who left Inter in the same transfer window). Gagliardini made his Inter debut on 14 January against Chievo at San Siro, playing the full-90 minutes in a 3–1 win to help the ''Nerazzurri'' claim their fifth consecutive league victory. On 5 March, he scored his first goal for Inter in a 5–1 win at

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

. The following week, Gagliardini scored against his parent club Atalanta in a 7–1 thrashing by Inter.

Monza

On 7 July 2023, Gagliardini signed for

as a free agent on a one-year deal, with an option to extend a further year.

International career

On 28 February 2014, Gagliardini was called up to the Italy under-20 side. On 12 August 2015, he made his debut with the under-21 side under manager Luigi Di Biagio, in a friendly match against Hungary, which ended in a 0–0 draw. In November 2016, Gagliardini was called up to the Italian senior squad for the first time by manager

Gian Piero Ventura Gian Piero Ventura (; born 14 January 1948) is an Italian football manager. His playing career as a midfielder was spent in the lower leagues, having not made the grade at Sampdoria, where he began his coaching career with the youth team in 1 ...

for a

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

match against Liechtenstein and a

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

match against Germany, following an injury to

Claudio Marchisio Claudio Marchisio (; born 19 January 1986) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. A product of the Juventus youth system, he spent a large portion of his career at his hometown club, with the exception of a sea ...

. On 28 March 2017, Gagliardini made his first senior appearance for the Italy national football team, along with four other players; he came off the bench to replace the injured Daniele De Rossi in the 37th minute of a 2–1 friendly away win against the Netherlands. In June 2017, he was included in the Italy under-21 squad for the

2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2017) was the 21st edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, a biennial international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-21 na ...

by manager Di Biagio. Italy were eliminated by Spain in the semi-finals on 27 June, following a 3–1 defeat, during which Gagliardini was sent off.

Style of play

At tall, Gagliardini is a complete midfielder, known for his physical attributes, vision and technique. He can play as a defensive midfielder, central midfielder or ''

mezzala 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 statistics

Club

International

Honours

Inter Milan * Serie A:

2020–21 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 ...

: 2021–22,

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 ...

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

* UEFA Champions League runner-up:

* UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2019–20

References

External links

Profile
at the Inter Milan website * *
FIGC profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gagliardini, Roberto 1994 births Living people Footballers from Bergamo Italian men's footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Italy men's youth international footballers Italy men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Atalanta BC players AC Cesena players Spezia Calcio players LR Vicenza players Inter Milan players AC Monza players Serie A players Serie B players People of Sicilian descent