Riccardo Gagliolo (; born 28 April 1990) is a 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 lea ...

who plays as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. Born in Italy to an Italian father and a Swedish mother, he won one

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for the Sweden national team in 2019.

Club career

Gagliolo made his senior debuts with Andora Calcio in the

Eccellenza Liguria Eccellenza Liguria is the regional Eccellenza football division for clubs in the northern Italian region of Liguria. It consists of 16 teams competing in one group. The winning team is promoted to Serie D, the top level of Italian amateur football ...

. In summer 2010, he joined Sanremese. In November 2011, he moved to Pro Imperia in

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

. In the summer of 2012, Gagliolo joined Carpi after a trial. On 3 July 2013, he signed a new deal with the club extending until 2017. On 24 August 2013, Gagliolo made his

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 ...

debut, starting in a 1–0 loss at

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 ...

; he scored his first goal on 29 December, the only goal of the game in a home win over

Juve Stabia Società Sportiva Juve Stabia is an Italian professional football club based in Castellammare di Stabia, Campania. Juve Stabia plays in Serie B, the second tier of Italian football system, following their promotion ahead of the 2024–25 seas ...

. On 24 July 2022, Gagliolo moved to Reggina on a multi-year contract.

International career

Gagliolo's mother was Swedish. He has a Swedish passport and has expressed a wish to play for the Sweden national team, specifically with

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Ibrahimović is known for his acrobatic strikes and Volley (association footba ...

. On 2 October 2019, Gagliolo was called up to Sweden's

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, intended to be playe ...

games against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Gagliolo made his international debut starting and playing the full game for Sweden in a 3–0 win against the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

in the last game of the Euro 2020 qualifying stage.

Personal life

Riccardo Gagliolo was born in

Imperia Imperia (; or ) is a coastal city and ''comune'' in the Regions of Italy, region of Liguria, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Imperia, and historically it was capital of the ''Intemelia'' district of Liguria. Benito Mussolini create ...

, Italy to an Italian father and a Swedish mother from

Sundsvall Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. Old town i ...

. Gagliolo understands the

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it the G ...

well but has said that he struggles to speak it himself. His mother Eva eventually moved back to Sweden where she died after a long illness in spring 2020 as Gagliolo was stuck in Italy due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. His maternal grandfather played football for Essviks AIF, near Sundsvall.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gagliolo, Riccardo Living people 1990 births People from Imperia Footballers from Liguria Men's association football defenders Italian men's footballers Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Swedish people of Italian descent Italian people of Swedish descent Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players SSD Sanremese Calcio players AC Carpi players Parma Calcio 1913 players US Salernitana 1919 players AS Reggina 1914 players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players Sportspeople from the Province of Imperia 21st-century Italian sportsmen 21st-century Swedish sportsmen