| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Amauri Carvalho de Oliveira | ||
| Date of birth | 3 June 1980 | ||
| Place of birth | Carapicuíba, Brazil | ||
| Height | 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Juventus | ||
| Number | 38 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1999–2000 | Santa Catarina Clube | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2000 | Bellinzona | 5 | (1) |
| 2000–2003 | Parma | 0 | (0) |
| 2001 | → Napoli (loan) | 6 | (1) |
| 2001–2002 | → Piacenza (loan) | 7 | (1) |
| 2002 | → Empoli (loan) | 0 | (0) |
| 2002–2003 | → Messina (loan) | 23 | (4) |
| 2003–2006 | Chievo | 90 | (17) |
| 2006–2008 | Palermo | 52 | (23) |
| 2008– | Juventus | 71 | (17) |
| 2011 | → Parma (loan) | 11 | (7) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2010 | Italy | 1 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15 May 2011. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Amauri Carvalho de Oliveira (born 3 June 1980), better known as Amauri, is a Brazilian-born Italian footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Juventus.
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Amauri was trialed at Palmeiras,[1] the club of his place of birth, São Paulo state, but failed to impress. At the age of 19, he went to Santa Catarina state to work[2] and played for a local club at Santa Catarina State League 2nd Division. Santa Catarina Clube was invited to Torneo di Viareggio in Italy,[1][2][3][4] at which he showed his talent to scouts; he was signed by a club from the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, AC Bellinzona.[2][4] He scored once in 5 appearances.[2][5]
After half-season in the Swiss Nationalliga B and Nationalliga A/B playoffs, he played for Napoli in 2000–01, due to the abolish of non-EU quota in the mid season.[6] Amauri until 2010 heard he was actually signed by Parma and on loan to Napoli, instead of signed by Napoli directly at the hearing of Caso Parmalat.[7]
Amauri made his Italian Serie A debut on 14 April 2001 in a league match against Bari. He played as one of the starting XI and was replaced by Francesco Moriero in the 69th minutes.
He then played for Piacenza in Serie A for the 2001–02 season (on loan from Parma along with Matuzalém),[8] and for Messina in Serie B during the 2002–03 season;[9] he was also loaned from Parma to Empoli of Serie A in June 2002 along with team-mate Gaetano Grieco.,[9][10] but left the club, after the start of Coppa Italia 2002–03 on 13 September, for Messina, before the start of Serie B (which was delayed[11]). Amauri made his club debut for Messina on 21 September 2002, a 3–3 draw with Catania. He replaced Emanuele Calaiò in the 76th minutes.
In mid-2003, Amauri joined Chievo in co-ownership deal, with Simone Barone loan became permanent. With Sergio Pellissier and Federico Cossato, he first played as a backup then a second-striker. In June 2005, Chievo bough the remain 50% registration rights from Parma.
During his time for Chievo, and especially in the 2005–06 season, ended with a qualification to the preliminary phase of UEFA Champions League (also favoured by the 2006 Serie A scandal), Amauri showed most of his potential, becoming one of the key players of the team.
On 31 August 2006, the last day of the 2006 summer transfer period, Amauri was sold to Palermo[12] for €7 million cash plus Denis Godeas (valued €0.7 million)[13] after having scored two goals in the return match of the third qualifying round against PFC Levski Sofia. Palermo did not have a good center-forward since the departure of Luca Toni in 2005 and needed to find a good partner for David Di Michele, as Andrea Caracciolo and Stephen Makinwa were not making a significant impact.
Immediately from his debut with Palermo, Amauri became a fan favourite and a key player for the Rosanero, scoring eight goals in 18 league matches until December 2006. A serious knee injury in a league match against Siena prevented him from playing for seven months;[14] however Amauri recovered in time for the start of the 2007–08 season, being immediately featured in the regular lineup for Palermo's first match against Roma. He scored his first goal in the new season in the next match, a 4–2 away win to Livorno.
On May 30, 2008 Amauri completed a €22.8 million move to the Italian giants, Juve.[15] in which part of the fee was paid via player transfer (Antonio Nocerino, tagged for €7.5M[15] and the half of registration rights of Davide Lanzafame, tagged for €2.5M).[16]
Since his arrival Amauri has impressed greatly in training and put on superb performances during Juventus' pre-season campaign. Against Lega Pro Seconda Divisione side Mezzocorona, he scored five goals in a 7–1 victory. He also has impressed and also hit the back of the net versus Brondby and versus Borussia Dortmund. He also impressed during Juventus' TIM Trophy against Milan and Internazionale, and Juventus' English Tour, in the Emirates Cup and against Manchester United in a shocking match at Old Trafford. He will fight for a first team position along with Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet, and Vincenzo Iaquinta. Towards the end of 2008, Amauri began to play more regularly under Claudio Ranieri and ended the year with 11 Serie A goals, the second highest goals for Juve.
Amauri chose Nedved's former jersey number, 11, for the 2009-10 season. The season turned out to be a disaster as it coincided with his goal droughts and a squad decimated by injuries all season.[17][18] He came under much criticism from fans for his yield of only six goals in 30 matches.
On 30 June 2010, due to irregularities of his transfer to Juventus and Palermo and third-party ownership, Amauri was fined along with his agents and numbers of staffs of Juventus, Palermo and Chievo.[19][20] It involved the irregularity of agents Stanislao Grimaldi and his son Mariano (representing both Amauri and Chievo at the same time, thus conflicts of interests), verbal agreement of Amauri with Palermo to waive some bonus of the 2007–08 season as part of the transfer; requesting Chievo to pay the agent 8% of the future transfer fee and requesting Palermo to pay €2 million in the transfer to Juventus.
The 2010-11 season started well for Amauri as he scored a brace in the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds against Shamrock Rovers. After that, he was benched for most games under new manager Luigi Delneri.
On 31 January 2011, Amauri joined Parma on loan until 30 June 2011.[21] He enjoyed an excellent few months at the club, scoring 7 times in 11 games and playing a big role in his temporary owners securing their place in Serie A for another year, as he formed an attacking tandem with former Juve teammate Sebastian Giovinco.
Amauri returned to Juventus after his loan deal expired. Despite much talk that he was to be "offloaded", no concrete deal was ever made. However, Juventus write-down the residual value of Amauri's contract (which last until 30 June 2012) backdated to 2010–11 financial year, which worth €5.348 million on 30 June 2011 (~ ¼ of €22.8million).[22] Juventus also wrote in the official translated press release that "unnamed" player "will be free from any obligation vis-à-vis Juventus commencing from January 2012, and who is no longer included in the new technical programme."[23] He remained in the squad for the 2011-12 season under Antonio Conte but did not received any call-up. His number 11 shirt also went to fullback Paolo De Ceglie.
Following his impressive performances when at Palermo, Amauri was suggested to be a potential call-up of the then Azzurri coach Roberto Donadoni, who stated he might be interested in calling him to the Italian squad.[24] Amauri, who has not appeared at international level for the Brazilian team, would have been indeed eligible in the future to play for the Italian national team[25] because he was eligible to acquire Italian nationality by marriage to a Brazilian-Italian woman; however, according to Italian law Amauri was forced to wait for at least one year from the day of the proclamation of his wife as an Italian citizen, which did not happen before April 2009.
On 31 January 2009, Brazilian coach Dunga selected Amauri, who was still ineligible to play for Italy at the time, as a replacement for the injured Luís Fabiano in an international friendly against Italy.[26] However, a few hours later, in the aftermath of a Juventus league game on the same day, Juventus chairman Giovanni Cobolli Gigli stated the club's intention not to allow the player to respond to the call-up.[27]
On November 2009, Amauri himself confirmed his decision to play for Italy instead of Brazil, following remarks by Italian striker Giampaolo Pazzini who was critical about the possibility of having a non-Italian born player within the azzurri squad.[28]
After receiving Italian citizenship in April 2010, Amauri finally became eligible to play for the Azzurri. Italy was scheduled to play two World Cup warm-up friendlies in June,[29] who would feature players from a 30-men preliminary squad to be announced on 11 May,[30] thus making Amauri unable to be featured in any of such friendly games without receiving a call-up to join such preliminary squad.[31] Marcello Lippi, the Italy coach, said Amauri would be followed like all the other players and no certainly inclusion. Which Lippi did not ruled out a call-up to the foreign born player completely.[32]
He [Amauri] will be followed like all the other players. I am taking this month to evaluate and take decisions that have to be made exclusively for the good of the national team.
–Marcello Lippi 13 April 2010
[33][34]
Lippi later expressed that he had confirmed 18 out of 23 players in his squad to the World Cup,[35] and excluded Amauri from the 29-men squad of the training camp in Rome on 3–5 May.[36] Amauri said he expected his exclusion as there were better players than him that season.[37]
On 6 August 2010 Amauri received his first call-up for the Italian national team, as part of the squad list announced by new head coach Cesare Prandelli for a friendly match against Côte d'Ivoire, the first match after World Cup.[38] He started the match in alongside debutant Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano who missed the team for 2 years in a new-look line-up but the Ivorians won 1-0 at Upton Park, London.
Amauri is married to fellow Brazilian Cynthia,[39] whom he first met during his spell at Napoli.[1] They have a daughter, Cindy, and a son, Hugo Leonardo.[1][39] Cynthia received Italian nationality in March 2009,[40] making Amauri eligible to obtain Italian nationality from March 2010.[41] Amauri finally received his Italian citizenship on April 12, 2010 during a ceremony in Turin.[42]
| Club performance | League | Cup | Continental | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Brazil | League | Copa do Brasil | South America | Total | ||||||
| 2000 | Santa Catarina | SC 2nd Division | ? | ? | - | - | - | - | ? | ? |
| Switzerland | League | Schweizer Cup | Europe | Total | ||||||
| 1999–2000 | Bellinzona | Nationalliga B | 5 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 5 | 1 |
| Italy | League | Coppa Italia | Europe | Total | ||||||
| 2000–01 | Napoli | Serie A | 6 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 6 | 1 |
| 2001–02 | Piacenza | 7 | 0 | 4 | 0 | - | - | 11 | 0 | |
| 2002–03 | Messina | Serie B | 23 | 4 | - | - | - | - | 23 | 4 |
| 2003–04 | Chievo | Serie A | 29 | 4 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 30 | 4 |
| 2004–05 | 24 | 2 | - | - | - | - | 24 | 2 | ||
| 2005–06 | 37 | 11 | 3 | 3 | - | - | 40 | 14 | ||
| 2006–07 | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Palermo | 18 | 8 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 19 | 8 | ||
| 2007–08 | 34 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 38 | 15 | ||
| 2008–09 | Juventus | 32 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 44 | 14 | |
| 2009–10 | 30 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 40 | 7 | ||
| 2010–11 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 16 | 3 | ||
| 2010–11 | Parma | 11 | 7 | - | - | - | - | 11 | 7 | |
| Total | Brazil | ? | ? | - | - | - | - | ? | ? | |
| Switzerland | 5 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 5 | 1 | ||
| Italy | 260 | 68 | 16 | 3 | 28 | 9 | 304 | 80 | ||
| Career total | ? | ? | 16 | 3 | 28 | 9 | ? | ? | ||
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