Gabriele Perico (born 11 March 1984) is an Italian former 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 played as a

right 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 ...

for Virtus Bergamo in the

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 ...

. He is a former Italy U20 international.

Club career

Perico started his career at hometown club

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

. In the 2003–04 season he left for

Prato Prato ( ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') in Tuscany, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Prato. The city lies in the northeast of Tuscany, at an elevation of , at the foot of Monte Retaia (the last peak in the Calvana ch ...

AlbinoLeffe

In summer 2004, he was signed by

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 ...

side AlbinoLeffe from Prato along with Mauro Belotti and

Alessandro Diamanti Alessandro Diamanti (; born 2 May 1983) is an Italian professional football coach and former midfielder who is the manager for Melbourne City Youth. In a professional career spanning 24 years, he has played for Prato, Empoli, Fucecchio, Fiorent ...

. The

Province of Bergamo The province of Bergamo (; ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Bergamo. The province has a population of 1,103,768 (2023), an area of , and contains 242 ''comune, comuni'' (municipali ...

based club, also signed Primavera teammate

Joelson Joelson is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name * Joelson Santos Silva or Joelson (born 1980), Brazilian footballer *Joelson José Inácio (born 1983), Brazilian footballer People with t ...

(in a co-ownership deal) and Mauro Minelli (on loan) from Atalanta. He made his Serie B debut for AlbinoLeffe in a 2–0 victory against

Venezia Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, on 11 September 2004.

Cagliari

On 9 August 2010 Perico joined

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

along with Simon Laner on loan for €750,000 (€375,000 each or €350,000 each plus Cocco)UC AlbinoLeffe S.r.l. ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2011 (in Italian) with option to co-own the players. On 21 June 2011 Cagliari excised the rights to sign the player in co-ownership deal for €375,000 in a 3-year contract. Cagliari also bought back Cocco for €150,000. In June 2012 Cagliari acquired Perico outright for €200,000, but Cocco also acquired by AlbinoLeffe outright for €200,000. The deals made Cagliari paid €950,000 to AlbinoLeffe for Perico, or €725,000 cash plus signing Cocco twice.

Cesena

On 16 July 2014, Perico signed for

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

side

Cesena Cesena (; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy; and - with Forlì - is the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. Served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine M ...

. After being relegated from Serie A after the 2014/15 season, Cesena finished 6th in Serie B during the 2015/16 season. He was released at the end of the 2015/16 season, after making 56 appearances and scoring 3 goals for the club. In July 2016, Perico joined English side

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

on trial. He played for Leeds first team in their final preseason friendly against

side

Atalanta B.C. Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio (), commonly referred to as Atalanta, is a professional Association football, football club based in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, who compete in Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system, Italian league ...

where he started in a 2–1 win. However, he failed to earn a permanent deal at the club.

Salernitana

On 31 August he joined Serie B club

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 a free transfer. He signed a 2-year contract.

FC Chiasso

On 4 January 2019, Perico signed with

FC Chiasso FC Chiasso is a Swiss football club based in Chiasso. It was founded in 1905. Chiasso also played in the Italian first league between 1914 and 1923. The team currently play in 3. Liga, the seventh tier of Swiss football. History Between 1927 ...

in Switzerland.

International career

Perico has represented Italy at various age groups including Italy U20's. He also won the

2003 UEFA European Under-19 Championship The 2003 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was held in Liechtenstein from 16 to 26 July 2003. Players born after 1 January 1984 could participate in this competition. Venues Qualifications There were two separate rounds of qualifications h ...

. Perico was capped for the Italy under-17 team at

2001 UEFA European Under-16 Championship The 2001 UEFA European Under-16 Championship was the 19th edition of UEFA's European Under-16 Football Championship. It was the last under-16 championship, before changing the name as under-17 championships. England hosted the championship, durin ...

(after 2001 the tournament was renamed the under-17 championship, but with the same age limit).

Honours

International

;Italy Under-19 *

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

References

External links

*
Gabriele Perico
at Soccerway *
Gabriele Perico National Team Stats
at FIGC.it *
Gabriele Perico
at Tuttocalciatori {{DEFAULTSORT:Perico, Gabriele 1984 births Footballers from Bergamo Living people Italian men's footballers Italian expatriate men's footballers Italy men's youth international footballers Men's association football defenders Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players Atalanta BC players Swiss Challenge League players UC AlbinoLeffe players Cagliari Calcio players AC Cesena players AC Monza players AC Prato players US Salernitana 1919 players US Livorno 1915 players FC Chiasso players SSD Virtus CiseranoBergamo 1909 players Italian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland 21st-century Italian sportsmen