| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 9 May 1983 | ||
| Place of birth | Palermo, Italy | ||
| Height | 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) | ||
| Playing position | Centre back | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Napoli | ||
| Number | 33 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Palermo | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2002–2008 | Palermo | 31 | (2) |
| 2002–2003 | → Varese (loan) | 7 | (0) |
| 2003–2004 | → Salernitana (loan) | 23 | (0) |
| 2004–2005 | → Cesena (loan) | 36 | (1) |
| 2006–2007 | → Siena (loan) | 27 | (1) |
| 2008– | Napoli | 37 | (0) |
| 2010–2011 | → Juventus (loan) | 1 | (0) |
| National team | |||
| 2005 | Italy U-21 | 1 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Leandro Rinaudo (born 9 May 1983) is an Italian footballer who plays for Serie A club S.S.C. Napoli.
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A youth product of Palermo, he was loaned to Serie C1 club Varese in the first year of Zamparini's era. The loan was pre-matured in January 2003. However he failed to enter the first team as Zamparini bought a couple of players from his former club A.C. Venezia.
On 30 August 2003, he was loaned to Serie B club Salernitana. He also played for Salernitana youth team at Coppa Italia Primavera as overage player.[1]
After Palermo won promotion to Serie A in 2004 as Serie B champion, Rinaudo was excluded from the club's Serie A plan, and was loaned to another Serie B club Cesena, where he started to play as one of the regular starters.
Rinaudo returned to Palermo on 1 July 2005. That season he was the backup for Christian Terlizzi, Giuseppe Biava, Cristian Zaccardo (right back or centre back) and Andrea Barzagli, only made 7 starts in the league, but he also made 3 starts in 2005–06 UEFA Cup.
In the 2006–07 Serie A season, near the end of summer transfer window, he left for fellow Serie A club Siena[2] along with Paul Codrea. Rinaudo partnered with Daniele Portanova as centre back and the team improved in goal conceded which made Rinaudo earn a third return to Palermo. He made 21 starts in Serie A that season, which he mainly competed with Biava for the central back position to partner with Barzagli, and Zaccardo usually as right back and Mattia Cassani sometimes as right winger or left back.
On 4 June 2008, he was sold to fellow Serie A club Napoli for €5.5 million[3] and signed a five-year contract.[4] He was not a regular in his first season at Napoli. Leandro was mainly used as a backup defender behind Fabiano Santacroce, Paolo Cannavaro and Matteo Contini
In 2009–10 season, he made 13 starts with Napoli in Serie A. As Napoli preferred 3–5–2 formation, Salvatore Aronica, Paolo Cannavaro, Gianluca Grava, Hugo Campagnaro and Matteo Contini were usually starters, made Rinaudo the backup centre back.
Rinaudo did not receive a call-up for the Napoli's first official match of the 2010–11 season, against Elfsborg in 2010–11 UEFA Europa League.[5] The coach used Cannavaro, Aronica, Campagnaro and Grava in the first 3 matches and reduced Rinaudo to 6th choice centre back behind Santacroce (who played as unused substitute).
As a result[says who?] of not being called up to the opening game for Napoli in Serie A,[6] he opted for and completed a loan move to fellow Serie A Side Juventus on 31 August for a fee of €600,000, with an option to make the transfer permanent for €5M,[7] thus re-joining former Napoli team-mate Fabio Quagliarella, Palermo team-mate Amauri and former Palermo coach Luigi Delneri. Napoli also signed centre back Emílson Cribari on the same day.[8] Rinaudo would be the backup centre back along with Nicola Legrottaglie to cover first choice defenders Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci. Rinaudo also set to join Bari but never completed.[9] He made his club debut on 26 September 2010, but unusually as right back. Coach rested right back Marco Motta and moved Zdenek Grygera to left back to replace injured Paolo De Ceglie. That match Juve won Cagliari 4–2. However, before the start of the next match, a group stage match of 2010–11 UEFA Europa League, against Manchester City, he was injured and had a operation on the Lumbosacral joint.[10]
On 1 July 2011 he returned to Napoli. He was excluded from 2011–12 UEFA Champions League 25-men senior squad.
Rinaudo never received any call-up from Italy youth teams. But in 2004–05 season he received several call-up from Italy under-21 Serie B representative team.[11][12][13][14] He was capped once in international games (also the only game of the team that season) against Bosnia and Herzegovina U21. He replaced Marco Pomante in the second half. U21 Serie B won the eastern neighbor 3–2.[15]
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