Gennaro Sardo (born 8 May 1979) 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

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 ...

Career

Early career

Sardo started his professional career in 1997 when he played for Palmese. In 1998, he moved on loan to Giugliano. He played 16 total games with the club. He would then return to Palmese. In all he managed 3 goals in a total of 25 starts for Palmese. In 1999, Sardo transferred to

Sant'Anastasia Sant'Anastasia (; ) is a (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about northeast of Naples. Sant'Anastasia borders the following municipalities: Casalnuovo di Napoli, Ercolano, Pollena Trocchia, ...

. In the next two seasons Sardo played 30 games and scored 3 goals. In 2001, he again transferred clubs, this time he moved to

Terzigno Terzigno is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italy, Italian region Campania, located about 20 km east of Naples. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 16,977 and an area of 23.5 km2.All demogr ...

. At the club he again scored 3 goals, but this time in just 26 appearances.

Salernitana and Avellino

Sardo moved 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 ...

in 2002. During his single season with the

Salerno Salerno (, ; ; ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located ...

based club, he made a total of 17 appearances. He moved to nearby rivals

Avellino Avellino () is a city and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

next season. In his season with Avellino, Sardo greatly impressed, appearing 41 times and scoring a single goal.

Piacenza

In 2004, Sardo moved north to play for

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

Piacenza Piacenza (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Piacenza, eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with more ...

. Over the next two seasons where he totaled 64 appearances and even scored two goals. He was sought after by many clubs following his spell with

and in 2006, he was sold to newly promoted

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

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 ...

Catania

Sardo officially transferred to newly promoted Catania in August 2006, and made 12 starts in 17 league appearances in his first season with the club, under then-coach

Pasquale Marino Pasquale Marino (born 13 July 1962) is an Italian football manager and former player, currently in charge of club Salernitana. Playing career A midfielder, Marino started for his home team, Marsala. Marino never played in divisions higher than ...

. Sardo remained with the club for the 2007–2008

campaign, and broke into the starting line-up under

Silvio Baldini Silvio Baldini (born 11 September 1958) is an Italian association football manager, currently in charge of club Pescara. Career Early years Born in Massa but hailing from nearby Carrara, Baldini started his coaching career in 1984 at the a ...

. During the course of the season, the right full back made 22 league appearances for the ''rossazzurri'', and also scored his first goal for the club. For the 2008–09 season, Sardo remained as one of the regular starters under

Walter Zenga Walter Zenga (; born 28 April 1960) is an Italian professional football manager and former player, currently club manager at Serie C club Siracusa. He is regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation, and one of Italy's best ...

, and made 12 starts in 14 league appearances. But following the purchase of right back

Alessandro Potenza Alessandro Potenza (born 8 March 1984) is an Italian football coach and a former player who played as a defender. Club career Inter Milan Potenza came from the youth system of Inter Milan, and was called up to the first team squad for the 20 ...

from

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, Sardo was sent on loan to

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona. History The name came from t ...

on 31 January 2009 along with teammate Giuseppe Colucci, who found playing time very limited in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

Chievo

At Chievo he just played 7 matches as the club had

Nicolas Frey Nicolas Sébastien Frey (born 6 March 1984) is a French former professional footballer who played as a right back. Club career Born in Thonon-les-Bains, Haute-Savoie, Frey played exclusively at amateur level in his country, joining AS Cannes' y ...

, On 1 July 2009, Sardo returned to

. He took part in Catania's pre-season and being re-included into Catania's Starting XI, Sardo was chosen to start the

opening game under coach

Gianluca Atzori Gianluca Atzori (born 6 March 1971) is an Italian football in Italy, football manager and former player, currently in charge of Serie D club Scafatese Calcio 1922, Scafatese. Career Playing Atzori started his professional playing career with R ...

, and a

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

match a week before. However, on the final day of the transfer market (31 August), Catania announced that Sardo would move back to Chievo again on loan. The loan was a part exchange deal that saw Chievo left back Giovanni Marchese, move in the opposite direction also on loan. Following the move, Sardo broke into Domenico Di Carlo's starting line-up and was one of the stand-out performers in Chievo's season, notably scoring against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

where he scored a scorcher in the 33rd minute to put Chievo ahead in the

clash, while he also poured a load of trouble versus his owners, Catania, in a 1–1 draw. Sardo went on to make 22 league appearances for the

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

based club, scoring 3 goals and shared the right-back role with

but sometimes featured at right wing-back role when Frey was used as one of the 3 central defender in 4–3–3 formation and even replaced midfielder Michele Marcolini in 2–0 won

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

on 25 April in 3–5–2 formation. On 28 June 2010, both club excised the rights to sign Sardo and Marchese permanently. he signed a 3-year contract.

References

External links

Profile at La Gazzett adello Sport (2007–08)

Profile at La Gazzett adello Sport (2006–07)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sardo, Gennaro 1979 births Living people Men's association football fullbacks Italian men's footballers Catania FC players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players US Avellino 1912 players US Salernitana 1919 players AC ChievoVerona players Serie A players Serie B players Giugliano Calcio 1928 players Footballers from the Metropolitan City of Naples