Gaetano Giallanza (born 6 June 1974) is a Swiss-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 striker. He is now a

football agent A sports agent is a legal representative (hence agent (law), agent) for professional sports figures such as athletes and coaches. They procure and negotiate employment and Testimonial, endorsement contracts for the principal (commercial law), at ...

and represented

Timm Klose Timm Klose (born 9 May 1988) is a Swiss former professional Association football, footballer who last played as Centre back for FC Basel, Basel U21 in the Swiss Promotion League. He used to play for the Switzerland national football team, Switzer ...

during his transfer to Giallanza's old club Norwich City.

Football career

Giallanza played youth football with Old Boys and joined OB's first team for their 1991–92 in their Nationalliga B season. The following season he played with

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

U-18 team and had one appearance for their first team in Basel's 1992–93 season, also in the second tier of Swiss football. Giallanza moved on and signed for

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

in the

1993–94 Nationalliga A Statistics of the Swiss National League in the 1993–94 football season, both Nationalliga A and Nationalliga B. Overview The 32 teams of the Swiss Football League (Nationalliga) were divided into two tiers. In the top-tier, there were 12 t ...

season. Servette won the championship and Giallanza scored one goal in ten appearances. He again moved on and signed for Young Boys for the

1994–95 Nationalliga A Statistics of the Swiss National League in the 1994–95 football season. This was the final season in which two points were awarded for a win; going forward this changed to three points. Overview The 28 teams of the Swiss Football League ( ...

season. YB finished the qualification round bottom of the table and slipped into the relegation round. In the relegation round Giallanza scored nine goals and helped save the team from relegation. With the seven goals from the qualifying round, he was the team's top goal scorer. Giallanza played the following season with

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

, but could not maintain a place in the starting eleven and so moved on again. Giallanza joined

for their 1996–97 season under head coach

Karl Engel Karl (Rudolf) Engel (Birsfelden, 1 June 1923 - Chernex, 2 September 2006) was a Swiss pianist. In 1952 Engel was awarded the second prize at the Queen Elisabeth competition. Throughout his concert career, he cultivated the art song repertory ...

. After playing in two test games, Giallanza played his team debut for the club in the 1996 Intertoto Cup. This was the away game in the

Isparta Atatürk Stadium Isparta Atatürk Şehir Stadyumu is a multi-purpose stadium in Isparta, Turkey. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of Turkish Regional Amateur League team Ispartaspor. The stadium was built in 1950 and cu ...

on 29 June 1996 as Basel won 5–2 against

Antalyaspor Antalyaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional multi-sport club based in Antalya, southern Turkey. The club's colours are red and white. The association football, football side play their home matches at the Antalya Stadium. In Turkey, the cl ...

. He scored his first goal for the club during the same game. He played his domestic league debut with the team in the away game two weeks later on 10 July 1996 as Basel won 1–0 against

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

. He scored his first league goal for the team on 17 August 1996 in the home game in the

St. Jakob Stadium The St. Jakob Stadium was a football (soccer), football stadium in Basel, Switzerland and the former home of Swiss club FC Basel. It was built in view of the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted several import ...

. But it did not help them because Basel were defeated 4–5 by Grasshopper Club. That season Giallanza had 32 appearances in the teams' 36 outings and he scored 17 goals and was the team's top goal scorer. In the following season Giallanza was also regular starter, but at the end of September he transferred to France. During his one and a half seasons with the club Giallanza played a total of 67 games for Basel scoring a total of 37 goals. 43 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 2 in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, 3 in the

UIC UIC may refer to: Computing * Uranium Information Centre, a defunct website sponsored by uranium mining companies * User identification code, the user number of the Files-11 file system in the RSX-11 operating system Education * University of Ill ...

and 19 were friendly games. He scored 21 goals in the domestic league, 2 in the UIC and the other 14 were scored during the test games. Giallanza signed for

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

and played his league debut for them on 26 September 1997 and scored his first goal for them in the same game. But it could not help his team as they were defeated 1–2 by AS Caen. In March 1998 Giallanza was loaned to

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

. In the season 1998–99 Giallanza was loaned out to

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

on a one-year contract and after this he then returned to Nantes. On 22 March 2000 Giallanza signed for

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

, originally on a three-month loan contract. He made a non-scoring debut in the 1–0 victory against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

on 15 April 2000. Giallanza signed definitively for the Canaries on 4 July 2000. An injury in the home match on 20 October 2000 against

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

forced Giallanza out for the remainder of the season and the entire following year. In May 2002 the Canaries announced that they would not renew his contract as the club was struggling with their funds. Returning to Switzerland Giallanza played one further season with Young Boys and two seasons with

. Giallanza's last station was in the season 2006–07 as he returned to England and played with lower league

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

Personal career

Giallanza worked two years alongside former professional footballer David Hodgson for BHP sports management and representation. Giallanza has opened his own agency, Giallanza Sport, and now represents a number of players including

Fabian Frei Fabian Frei (born 8 January 1989) is a former Swiss professional footballer who primarily played as a defensive midfielder and a centre-back. He is best known for holding the records for most appearances in competitive games for giants FC Basel ...

and David von Ballmoos.

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

External links

Giallanza Sport

Gaetano Giallanza Interview
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giallanza, Gaetano 1974 births Living people People from Dorneck District Footballers from the canton of Solothurn Swiss men's footballers Men's association football forwards FC Nantes players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Darlington F.C. players FC Basel players FC Sion players BSC Young Boys players Servette FC players FC Aarau players Premier League players Swiss Super League players Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in France Swiss expatriate men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in England