Emanuele Giaccherini

Giaccherini appeared as a 77th-minute substitute for Lee Cattermole in the League Cup Final on 2 March, but was unable to prevent Sunderland losing 3–1 to Manchester City.

On 17 April, Giaccherini came on as a substitute with Sunderland trailing 1–0 in the league at the City of Manchester Stadium, and assisted both of Connor Wickham's goals as Sunderland went on to draw 2–2.

Emanuele Giaccherini (born 5 May 1985) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.

He began his career at Cesena, and after loans at three lower-league clubs, helped them to consecutive promotions to reach Serie A. He then left to Juventus, where he won the league title in both of his seasons.

He scored 15 goals in the group stages of the Campionato Nazionale Primavera in the 2003–04 season.

He was then sent out on loan to Lega Pro clubs Forli, Bellaria Igea and Pavia for four seasons.

Cesena was relegated to the Lega Pro Prima Divisione in 2008, when Giaccherini returned and was partnered with Simone Motta in attack.

Cesena came top of the Prima Divisione in June 2009.

Due to their good defensive record Cesena finished as runner-up in the 2009–10 Serie B season and was therefore promoted to Serie A, where Giaccherini was partnered with Guilherme do Prado, Dominique Malonga, Ezequiel Schelotto and Cristian Bucchi in attack, none of whom managed to hit double figures.

In August 2010 Cesena offered a new contract to Giaccherini as his current contract was due to expire in 2012.

In the 2010–11 Serie A season Giaccherini remained a first-choice starter and was partnered with wing-forward Schelotto and Erjon Bogdani.

The club once again reached the top of the table but went on a winless run after the third match as a result of which Luis Jiménez replaced Schelotto as Giaccherini's new attacking partner.

Giaccherini managed to score in seven matches that season, including a goal in a 2–0 win against Milan and once in a 2–3 loss to Inter.

He also scored a brace on 6 March as Cesena beat Sampdoria 3–2, and managed 3 more goals in the last 7 matches of the season.

He made four assists in his maiden Serie A season which was one short of Luca Ceccarelli.

On 25 August 2011, Giaccherini officially transferred to Juventus on a €3 million co-ownership with Cesena retaining 50% of his contract.

He made his competitive debut for Juventus against Parma.

On 8 December 2011, he scored his first goal for the Bianconeri, an angled solo effort in a 2–1 win over Bologna in the Coppa Italia.

Giaccherini has earned over 20 caps for the Italy national football team, helping the nation to the final of UEFA Euro 2012 and a third-place finish at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, also taking part at UEFA Euro 2016.

Born in Bibbiena, Tuscany, Giaccherini started his professional career at Romagna team Cesena.

He scored his first Serie A goal for the club on 21 January 2012, scoring the second in a 2–0 victory over Atalanta on a volley from Luca Marrone.

Three days later he scored the first goal in Juventus's 3–0 Coppa Italia victory against Roma.

Due to injuries and suspensions to first choice centre midfielders Claudio Marchisio and Arturo Vidal, Conte has played him in a more central role.

Juventus won the Serie A title unbeaten that season and reached the final of the Coppa Italia, losing to Napoli.

In June 2012 Juventus bought him outright for €4.25 million, in a deal that would keep him tied to the club until June 2015.

Juventus won the Supercoppa Italiana against Napoli and retained the Serie A title during the 2012–13 season.

They also reached the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia and the Quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, losing, in both competitions, to the respective winners, Lazio and Bayern Munich.

He joined Sunderland on a four-year deal in 2013, before moving to Napoli in 2016.

Two years later, he joined Chievo.

On 11 July 2013, Juventus manager Antonio Conte confirmed the sale of Giaccherini to English club Sunderland, in order to raise funds.

Sunderland confirmed the signing of Giaccherini on 16 July 2013, on a four-year contract after joining up with his new team during their pre-season training camp near Lake Garda.

He made his debut on 17 August, in a 1–0 defeat at home to Fulham.

In his second match of the campaign, he scored a headed goal as Sunderland drew 1–1 away to Southampton on 24 August.

His first cup goal came on 24 September 2013 in a 2–0 League Cup win against Peterborough.

His second league goal, came in the following game at home to Liverpool, on 29 September 2013.

He was the first to react as Simon Mignolet spilled a Ki Sung-yueng shot, and finished from six yards.

On 22 February 2014 Giaccherini scored his fourth goal from a 25-yard shot in a 4–1 loss against Arsenal.

He scored his fifth goal of the season, and fourth in the league, on 27 April 2014, when he scored the third goal in Sunderland's 4–0 win against Cardiff City, a result which saw Sunderland move out of the relegation zone.

Giaccherini chose to remain at Sunderland for the 2014–15 season, despite missing out on a place in Italy's squad at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

However, he suffered an injury in a pre-season match with Real Betis which ruled him out of the start of the season.