Emanuele Calaiò (born 8 January 1982) is a former Italian

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 lea ...

who played as a striker.

Club career

Calaiò started his football career at

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) 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. The city is main ...

making his league debut against Reggina on 6 January 2000, he scored a goal for Torino three minutes into his debut. He made 20 league appearances in total for Torino. In January 2002, Calaiò was exchanged with Alessandro Cibocchi of

Ternana Ternana Calcio, commonly referred to as Ternana, is an Italian football club based in Terni, Umbria and currently compete in the Serie C. The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana has twice played in Serie A ...

with inflated price tag to create a paper profit for both clubs (for which Ternana was fined in 2010, 8 years later) and then a short spell with

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

followed. In January 2003, he was loaned by

Pescara Pescara (; ; ) is the capital city of the province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo Regions of Italy, region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 118,657 (January 1, 2023) residents (and approximately 350,000 including the surround ...

and turned permanently in June 2004. He also returned to Torino Calcio in 2003 in exchange with Cibocchi again. With Pescara, Calaiò solidified himself as an impressive striker, the club won

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back into

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as 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 b ...

in 2003, with Calaiò scoring 20 times in his second season. In the third at Serie B, he scored 6 in the first half of the season.

Napoli

In January 2005,

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

signed him for €2.85 million, he scored just 6 in the first season, but in the second he scored 18, won the champion and promotion back to Serie B with club. He scored 14 in his third season with Napoli, won promotion back to Serie A. With the arrival of

Marcelo Zalayeta Marcelo Danubio Zalayeta (; born 5 December 1978) is a Uruguayan former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. Zalayeta began his club career with Danubio F.C., Danubio before movi ...

and

Ezequiel Lavezzi Ezequiel Iván "Pocho" Lavezzi (, ; born 3 May 1985) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a forward. During his career, his most important attributes were his pace, hardworking style of play, technique, creativity, and d ...

, he had limited chances to play.

Siena

In July 2008, Calaiò joined fellow Serie A team,

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

in a co-ownership bid, for €2.3 million. in June 2009 Siena signed him outright for €1.25 million (which made Napoli register a financial loss of €1.05 million). He followed Siena,

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to Serie B in 2010 and finished as the runner-up and promoted back to top division. On 10 June 2011, he signed a new three-year contract. He was one of the two starting strikers along with Mattia Destro in

2011–12 Serie A The 2011–12 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM after its headline sponsors) was the 110th season of top-tier Italian football, the 80th in a round-robin tournament, and the second since its organization under a league committee separate from S ...

season, scoring 11 goals in 25 league matches until he broke his leg in March 2012.

Return to Napoli

On 11 January 2013, his transfer to former team

was officially announced. He arrived on-loan with the option to make the switch permanent if Napoli qualified for the Champions League during the 2013 season.

Catania

On 11 July 2014, his transfer to

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

was officially announced. He signed a two-year contract with an option for a third.

Spezia

On 3 August 2015, Calaiò was signed by

Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguri ...

Parma

On 4 August 2016, Calaiò was sold to

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

. On 23 July 2018, he was handed a two-year ban and a €20,000 fine, following text messages "eliciting a reduced effort" from two players of

during the

2017–18 Serie B The 2017–18 Serie B (known as the Serie B ConTe.it for sponsorship reasons) was the 86th season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams contested the league: 15 returning from the 2016–17 Serie B season, 4 promoted from 2016� ...

, a match Parma won 2–0 to secure promotion to 2018–19 Serie A. On 9 August, Calaiò's ban was reduced, expiring on 31 December 2018, however the fine was increased to €30,000.

Salernitana

On 31 January 2019, Calaiò signed to

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is an Italian professional football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recently in 2011. The current ...

. On 17 September 2019, he announced his retirement from playing.

International career

Calaiò capped for both Italy U21 and Serie B U21 selection which played the latter for the match 3–2 won Belgium U21 on 30 March 2004. He also received the Serie B U21 call-up for the match against

Legnano Legnano (; or ''Lignàn'') is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan, province of Milan, about from central Milan. With 60,259, it is the thirteenth-most populous township in Lombardy. Legnano is located in the ...

. He also call-up to 2000 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship qualification and played in qualifying match in 2001 edition. Calaiò capped once for U17 team, at that time the feeder team of U18. (now called Italy national under-18 football team)

Style of play

A left–footed striker, Calaiò was mainly known for his heading, ability in the air, and eye for goal; he was also an accurate

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

taker.

Personal life

Calaiò is married to Federica, sister of Nicola Mora's wife. Both players played for Torino during the 2000–01 season and Napoli in 2004–05.

Career statistics

''As of 12 September 2009Football.it
/ref> ¹Include 2 matches at promotion playoffs
²Include 3 matches at promotion playoffs

Honours

;Torino *

: 2000–01 ;Napoli *

: 2005–06 *

: 2006–07

References

External links

FIGC National Team Archive
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Calaio, Emanuele Italian men's footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Italy men's youth international footballers Torino FC players Ternana Calcio players ACR Messina players Delfino Pescara 1936 players SSC Napoli players Siena FC SSD players Genoa CFC players Catania FC players Spezia Calcio players Parma Calcio 1913 players US Salernitana 1919 players Men's association football forwards Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Footballers from Palermo 1982 births Living people Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Italy Mediterranean Games medalists in football Competitors at the 2001 Mediterranean Games 21st-century Italian sportsmen