Antonio Di Natale

Antonio Di Natale (born 13 October 1977) is an Italian football coach and former professional player who played as a striker.

Also known as "Totò", Di Natale was born in Naples on 13 October 1977 to Salvatore, a professional painter, and Giovanna.

He has two brothers, Paolo and Carmine, and two sisters, Michela and Anna.

Despite being born in Naples, Di Natale made the move north for his footballing career, joining Empoli's youth system.

After being a member of the Empoli youth side since 1994, Di Natale started his professional career with the Empoli senior side in 1996, and remained with the club until 2004, aside from brief loan spells with Iperzola, Varese and Viareggio.

While at Empoli, he was loaned out three times, enjoying success with Viareggio in the 1998–99 campaign, where he scored 12 goals in 25 games for the Tuscan side.

Upon his return to his parent club, he finally made his breakthrough into the first team squad and established himself as an integral member of the side.

He scored 6 goals in 25 appearances for Empoli during the 1999–2000 campaign as Empoli finished in ninth place in Serie B.

During his time with Empoli, he helped the club to achieve Serie A promotion during the 2001–02 Serie B season, scoring 16 goals.

His breakthrough came during the 2002–03 Serie A season, as he scored 13 goals in the league and helped Empoli avoid relegation.

At international level, Di Natale represented the Italy national team 42 times between 2002 and 2012, scoring 11 goals.

Empoli won promotion to the Serie A in 2002 after finishing in fourth place during the 2001–02 Serie B season with 67 points.

They finished with 60 goals, the largest tally in the competition, and Di Natale finished as the club's top goalscorer with 16 league goals.

In Empoli's first season back in the topflight, he helped the club fight off relegation by scoring 13 times in the league.

This included a hat-trick in Empoli's 4–2 defeat of Reggina on 17 November 2002.

The next season was less fortunate for Di Natale, who only scored five goals in the league.

Following two seasons in the Serie A, Empoli were relegated back to the Serie B at the end of the 2003–04 campaign.

Despite being unable to find the net as regularly or save Empoli from relegation the following season, his performances and consistent goalscoring earned him a transfer to Udinese in 2004.

During his time with Udinese, Di Natale's skill, leadership and ability to both score and create many goals played a key role in helping the club to third and fourth-place finishes in Serie A and qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

After Empoli were relegated, Di Natale joined Udinese for the 2004–05 Serie A season, along with Manuel Belleri and Emílson Cribari.

In Udine, he partnered with Vincenzo Iaquinta and David Di Michele in attack, and the Friulian club finished fourth place at the end of the season and qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the following year.

In his debut season with Udinese, Di Natale played 33 league games and scored 7 league goals.

In 2007, he was named the club's captain.

Di Natale's consistent goalscoring with Udinese saw him reach double figures for nine consecutive league seasons.

In the 2007–08 season, Di Natale scored 17 league goals.

The two most notable goals were scored on matchday 4, when Udinese played against Reggina.

Forming a formidable attacking duo with Fabio Quagliarella, Di Natale improved his goal tally, becoming the focal point of the attack.

With Italy, he participated in UEFA Euro 2008; the 2010 FIFA World Cup, where he scored one goal; and at Euro 2012, where he also scored a goal as Italy reached the final of the tournament.

A late bloomer, unlike most strikers, he enjoyed his most prolific seasons in front of goal well after age 30; between 2009 and 2011, Lionel Messi (82) and Cristiano Ronaldo (86) were the only two players to have scored more league goals than Di Natale (67).

The 2009–10 season saw Di Natale finish as runner-up for the European Golden Shoe with Chelsea striker Didier Drogba on 29 goals, five behind Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.

He also helped the club to reach the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia that season.

He won the Serie A top goalscorer award in 2010 and 2011, and was also awarded the Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year award for his performances in 2010.

May 2010 saw the conclusion of Di Natale's best-ever season, scoring 29 goals in Serie A, and contributing 54% of Udinese's total goals.

He also surpassed Oliver Bierhoff's club record for most league goals in a season, who had scored 28.

A brace against Bari on 9 May 2010 saw Di Natale surpass the 100-goal mark in Serie A. For his performances, he was voted Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year and finished as the top scorer in Serie A. He also received the Serie A Fair Play award for interrupting play in a match while Lazio's Libor Kozák was injured, with Udinese down 3–2 late in the match.

On 14 November 2010, Di Natale scored a hat-trick during a match against Lecce and on 28 November, he scored a second consecutive home hat-trick during a match against Napoli.

In 2007, he was named captain of Udinese and his contract was extended to 30 June 2012.

In 2015, France Football rated him as one of the ten-best footballers in the world who are over age 36.

Di Natale is Udinese's top appearance holder and goal-scorer in Serie A with 191 goals in 385 appearances, and in UEFA club competitions, with 17 goals in 37 appearances.

With 209 goals, he is also the sixth-highest goal-scorer in Serie A, and with 311 goals, he is the eighth-highest scoring Italian player in all competitions, behind Silvio Piola, Alessandro Del Piero, Giuseppe Meazza, Luca Toni, Roberto Baggio, Francesco Totti and Filippo Inzaghi.