WHEN Udinese’s Valon Behrami tripped Grégoire Defrel during January’s game away at Sampdoria, the subsequent penalty took on extra significance for Fabio Quagliarella. Standing calmly over the ball and waiting for the whistle, he knew that he had a chance to make history with the spot kick.
To many men, such pressure might prove to be too much, but for the veteran striker this was nothing compared to all he’d been through and he stepped up confidently, smashing a low, powerfully driven effort beyond helpless goalkeeper Juan Musso. By scoring, Quagliarella had equalled Fiorentina legend Gabriel Batistuta’s record of finding the back of the net in 11 consecutive Serie A games, the final whistle seeing him overcome with emotion due to the sheer size of that accomplishment.
“It’s unthinkable. I’m sorry because just to be able to imagine something like that… just naming Batistuta gives me goosebumps,” he told Sky Italia as he left the field having also bagged another penalty. I’m speechless too, believe me, this is my life! I’ll be 36 in a few days, so this makes me so proud. All that happened in the past and all these sacrifices led to this, something I never thought could happen!”
11 – Fabio #Quagliarella has scored in 11 consecutive Serie A games played, the joint-longest such run in the history of the competition, equalling Gabriel Omar Batistuta (11 in a row in 1994). Olympus. #SampdoriaUdinese pic.twitter.com/vUlIJrxw2N
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) January 26, 2019
He was of course referring to the private hell he had gone through, a terrifying sequence of events which began shortly after completing what should have been a dream move to hometown club Napoli back in 2009. Encountering a seemingly innocuous password problem with his computer, Quagliarella’s best friend Giulio introduced him to Raffaelle Piccolo, a computer expert with the postal police. Soon after that he began to receive hundreds and hundreds of anonymous letters and messages.
“It was everything from photos of naked girls, where it said underneath that I was a paedophile, or that I was involved with the Camorra, or that I was doing drugs, or guilty of illegal football betting," he revealed in an interview with Le Iene last year. He turned to Piccolo for advice but would, out of fear and paranoia, leave for Juventus just 12 months after signing for the Partenopei, unable to perform given nature of those on-going threats.
"I always had imagined myself as captain of Napoli; of winning something with them because they were becoming as good a team as they are now," Quagliarella admitted to Mediaset much later. "If none of this had happened, I am certain I would still be playing there now.”
What hurt most was being unable to tell supporters of the club he loved why he was moving on, so preoccupied with not harming the investigation into the strife he faced. That meant enduring insults, whistles and boos every time he faced Napoli, fans at the San Paolo convinced he had disowned and betrayed them. Things got worse when he scored a penalty for Torino in Naples, going under the Curva B and seemingly holding his hands together to ask for their forgiveness.
#Torino fans unhappy with Fabio Quagliarella after he seemed to apologise to #Napoli for scoring against them (1/2) pic.twitter.com/ubv2oCVs1u
— Adam Digby (@Adz77) January 10, 2016
That was too much for Toro fans who, unaware of what was going on, unfurled a banner at their next home game which read "we don't care about your excuses, it's time to say goodbye.” By January 2016 Quagliarella would do just that, joining Sampdoria where his first year would see no progress with the investigation until it was discovered that Piccolo had not filed any of the complaints he had made.
The ordeal finally ended in February 2017 when Piccolo – after being found guilty of blackmail and extortion – was sentenced to almost five years and eight months in jail. At that point, Quagliarella had scored seven times in his first 40 appearances for Samp but the resolution of the stalker nightmare would see a weight lifted of his shoulders and suddenly the goals began to flow.
Seven in the final 14 league games of the 2016/17 campaign would put him in double figures for the first time in three years but, for a man who had always been the quintessential “scorer of great goals but not a great goal scorer,” many wondered how long he could maintain such a streak.
However, he still hasn’t stopped. Last term saw him reach a tally of 19, the most he had ever managed in a league season even including his time in the third and fourth tiers. But the striker’s recent streak has taken him to the same number in just 25 appearances during the current campaign, a remarkable return for a truly remarkable player.
OBSCENE from Quagliarella against Napoli last night pic.twitter.com/CYcSccBavk
— ThickAccent(dot)Com (@ThickAcc) September 3, 2018
It was fitting that the 12th game would come against Napoli, with the same supporters Quagliarella had begged to forgive him finally understanding what he had gone through. Just as his stalker hell had been revealed, fans at the San Paolo unfurled a banner which read "you’ve lived through hell with enormous dignity. We will embrace you again, Fabio, son of this city."
He did not score but clearly enjoyed once again feeling the love of his hometown club and has continued to find the net, most recently netting two sensational goals against SPAL that saw him move up to sixth on Sampdoria’s all-time leading marksman chart. There is also the small matter of him ending the 2018/19 goal-of-the-season competition in just the third round of fixtures with the frankly ludicrous flick shown above.
But despite celebrating his 36th birthday just days after his record-equalling penalty, don’t convince yourself he is ageing like a fine bottle of Italian red. This is not a case of a late-bloomer or an Indian summer, instead it is simply the tale of a man who has almost been to hell and back, of a player who lived through a terrible ordeal and possessed the strength to emerge at the other end revitalised and free of any lingering after effects.
This is the story of Fabio Quagliarella, a great goal scorer and a scorer of great goals.
