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Berardi, Gaetano

2014-Current (Leeds Player Details)(Player Details)

Right Back

Born: Sorengo, Lugano, Switzerland: 21-08-1988

Debut: v Accrington Stanley (h): 12-08-2014

Height & Weight: 5ft 8ins 11st

The Swiss right-back started his career with local youth team Basso Malcaltone in Lugano and was signed by Italian Serie B team Brescia Calcio at the start of the 2005-06 season. He was soon recognised at international level making his debut for the Swiss Under-Eighteen side on 14th September 2005 and went on to be included three times at that level. He progressed into the Under- Nineteen squad the following season, making his debut on 16th August 2006 and being called up four times. In the 2006-07 season he was brought into the Brescia Serie A team, firstly on 5th May 2007 when he was an unused substitute in a 3-1 win at Spezia Calcio, before making his starting debut on 3rd June 2007 in a 3-1 win at Delfino Pescara, where he played the full ninety minutes. At the start of the 2007-08 season he came on as am eighty-ninth minute substitute for Fabiano Santacroce in the Coppa Italia 1-2 defeat at AC Pisa on 15th August 2007 and one month later he came on ten minutes earlier for the same player in the 3-0 Serie B win against the same opposition. Later in the season he was a seventy-eighth minute substitute for Roberto de Zerbi in a 2-0 home win over Bologna FC on 23rd February 2008 and after starting and playing the full game in a 0-1 defeat at US Triestina on 21st March 2008 he had a spell of appearances to finish the season having been included in the squad fifteen times, for six starts 3 games from the bench and being unused on six occasions. He also was unused on the bench in one Serie B Play-off game. At International level he had progressed to Under-Twenty team and called up five times, playing a full game on 14th November 2007 in a 0-3 in Italy, twice being a half-time substitute, coming on for Stefan Glarner in a 0-0 home draw with Italy on 5th September 2007 and starting the 2-0 away win in Austria on 16th October 2007, when he was replaced by Raphael Mollet. He was an unused substitute on 12th October 2007 in a 0-0 home draw with Austria and the 1-2 home defeat by Germany on 21st November 2007. He became an established squad member in the 2008-09 season being involved in thirty-eight Serie B fixtures with eighteen starts, eight games from the bench and remaining on the bench in twelve others. He also was twice unused in the Serie B Play-offs and Started one and came on as a substitute in one Coppa Italia ties. He also started two and came on as a substitute in games at Under-Twenty level for Switzerland. He had a full game in on 19th October 2008 in the 1-1 draw in Austria, started the game on 10th September in a home 5-2 win over Italy, but had to come off injured after twenty-eight minutes and be replaced by Nick von Niederhausen and was a half-time substitute for Dominik Ritter in a 2-3 loss in Germany on 8th October 2008, which saw him take his Under-Twenty caps to six, with four starts and two games from the bench, and two games where he was unused. He now moved on to the Swiss Under-Twenty-One squad, making his debut as a half-time substitute for Michael Kovacevic in a 1-1 draw in Greece on 19th November 2008. On 10th February 2009 he was again a half-time substitute for the same player in a 3-1 defeat in Portugal. He was an unused substitute on 28th March 2009 in a home 2-0 win over the German Under-Twenty team, but three days later he had his first full game in a 2-1 win in Austria. 2009-10 saw him again a regular in the Brescia Serie B squad, being in the squad in thirty-seven games with twenty-four starts, five more from the bench and being unused eight times. In the Serie B Play-offs in which Brescia gained promotion after beating Torino 2-1 on aggregate in the Serie B playoff final on 12th June 2010, when Berardi came on as a seventy-second minute substitute for Marco Zambelli in his only participation in the play-offs. He added a further nine caps to his Under-twenty-One collection with full game appearances on 5th June 2009 in a 2-1 home win over Armenia, on 4th September in a 3-1 win against the same opponents, 13-10-2009 Ireland 1-1 Switzerland, then on 14th November in a 3-1 win in Turkey, on 26th May 2010 in a 0-2 home loss against the same foe and then on 3rd September 2010 in a 1-0 home win over Ireland. He also started three games but was substituted, on 9th October 2009 in a 4-1 win in Estonia, when Rolf Feltscher replaced him after eighty-three minutes, on 18th November in a 1-0 home win over Georgia, when Fabian Frei was a seventy-seventh minute substituted, and on 3rd March 2010 in a 2-1 win in Norway when Rolf Feltscher was his replacement in the fifty-sixth minute. He was an unused substitute on 12th August 2009 in a 0-1 home defeat by Estonia. Brescia's Serie A season started with Berardi on the bench as an unused substitute as they were defeated 0-2 by Parma FC on 29th August 2010, but he made his Serie A start with a full game on 12th September 2010 as Brescia gained their first points with a 3-2 home win over US Palermo. Once more he was a strong member of the squad featuring in thirty-two games which comprised twenty-four starts, three from the bench and five games in which he remained on the bench. He also started both games in the Coppa Italia. Brescia did not fare well in Serie A and were relegated after finishing nineteenth of twenty. At International level he completed his time with the Swiss Under-Twenty-one team with seven starts and one more from the bench. He had six full games, on 11th August in a 0-1 home loss to Greece, on 11th October 2010 on a 1-1 draw in Sweden, 11th June 2011 in a 1-0 win in Denmark, in a 2-0 home win over Iceland, three days later, a 1-0 home win, after extra-time, over the Czech Republic on 22nd June and three days later when they were defeated 0-2 by Spain in the final of the European competition at NRGI Park, home of Aarhus in Denmark. He started in the 3-0 win over Belaruss, also at NRGI Park, but gave way to Fabio Daprela after seventy-five minutes and on 9th February 2011 he came off the bench to replace Jonathan Rossini in the seventy-first minute in a 1-1 draw in Ukraine. He won twenty caps for seventeen starts and three games from the bench and was an unused substitute twice at Under-Twenty-One level. After making twelve starts and coming on as a substitute once in Serie B and making one start in the Coppa Italia during the opening months of the 2011-12 season Berardi was transferred to Sampdoria on 3rd January 2012, where he rejoined his former coach Giuseppe Iachini. While at Brescia he had started eighty-five, come off the bench twenty times and been unused substitute thirty-two times in the Serie A or B side. He also had one substitute appearance and sat unused on the bench five times in Serie B play-offs as well as making four starts and having two games from the bench in the Coppa Italia, all without scoring. With UC Sampdoria he was unused on the bench in his initial game on 6th January 2012 in which his new club were beaten at home 0-1 by AS Varese. He made his starting debut in a 2-1 win at Padova on 14th January 2012 and went on to make nine starts, of which he had to be substituted by Andrea Rispoli in the twenty-ninth minute after being injured on 6th March 2012 in a 1-0 home win over FC Empoli and he was sent off in the sixty-third minute of the 0-1 defeat at FC Crotone on 6th April 2012 after being twice yellow carded. However, he did help his new club to promotion after they beat AS Varese 4-2 on aggregate in the play-off finals, even though by then he was not in the squad. He had received his first cap for Switzerland on 10th August 2011 when he came on as a substutute for Stephan Lichtsteiner with seven minutes left to play in the 2-1 away win in Liechtenstein, but that is his only full cap to date. He made his Serie A debut for Sampdoria on 26th August 2012 in a 1-0 win at AC Milan and completed the full game. He went on to be included thirty-one times in the squad for the season, comprising eighteen starts, three games from the bench and sat unused for ten games. He was also an unused substitute in Sampdoria's 5-4 defeat by SS Juve Stabia in the Coppa Italia. Despite Giuseppe Iachini having been replaced by Sinisa Mihajlovic in November 2013 he still managed to feature in twenty-two games in Serioe A in 2013-14 season. However, in seventeen of those games he was an unused substitute, srating only four games and making one more appearance from the bench. He also had one game as an unused substitute in the Coppa Italia. It proved to be his final season at Sampdoria, as, on 19th July 2014 he joined Leeds United after starting thirty-one and coming from the bench four times and sitting unused in a further twenty-eight matches in Serie A/B, as well as sitting out two Coppa Italia ties on the bench, while at Sampdoria. He signed a two year contract with a further option for one year with the Yorkshire club. His start with his new club could hardly have got off on a worse footing as after sitting out United's first League game of the season as an unused substitute in a 0-2 defeat at Millwall on 9th August 2014, he made his Leeds debut in the starting eleven three days later in a 2-1 home win over Accrington Stanley in the League Cup and he was given a straight red card for an horrendous flying tackle in the final minutes of the game. This saw him serve a three game ban and was not included in the squad for a League Cup tie and a further League match. He made a comeback as he played a full game in a 1-1 draw at Birmingham City on 13th September 2014. This was followed three days later by another full game in a 3-1 win at Bournemouth. Just when he thought things were looking up he was booked in the twenty-fourth minute of the 3-0 home win over Huddersfield Town on 20th September 2014 and then disaster struck once more as he received a second yellow in the seventy-third minute and he was dismissed, with another two match ban being received. Despite the unsteady start he had made to his Leeds career he settled down and fought his way into the first team, starting nineteen League games and coming off the bench on three occasions. He also made one start in each of the F.A. Cup and the League Cup. On 21st September 2015 he signed a two year contract extension kept him at the club until the summer of 2018. Berardi's disciplinary problems continued as he received a red card on 21st November 2015 in the 0-1 home defeat by Rotherham United. His bad luck continued on his resumption after his suspension when he suffered a torn ankle ligament in the 0-0 draw at Charlton Athletic on 14th December 2015, which saw him sidelined for two months. He regained his first team place upon recovery and went on to become the runner up to Charlie Taylor in the Yorkshire Post Player of the season award. The 2016-17 season did not start well for him as injury kept him out of thr pre-season practice games, but he made the bench for the final friendly game against Atlanta. He was in the right-back position on 7th August 2016 for the opening day 0-3 defeat at Queens Park Rangers, but was replaced by Lewie Coyle after twenty-two minutes when he had to leave the field with a groin injury. The injury kept him out of consideration for six weeks. In that time Luke Ayling had been signed and had cemented himself into the right back position. He returned to the team at left-back for the penalty shootout win at Norwich City on 25th October 2016 with Lewie Coyle his right back partner. However, United retained Luke Ayling and Charlie Taylor as their full-back combination in League games. He had to wait for another's misfortune for his return to regular first team football. Left back Charlie Taylor pulled up with an Achilles injury in the 1-0 home win over Brentford on 17th December 2016 and Berardi replaced him in the fifty-eighth minute and this saw Berardi start a run of appearances at left back, which was only broken by the return of Charlie Taylor, initially in the 3-1 away win at Birmingham City, on 3rd March 2017,and on two other subsequent occasions, when Ayling was unavailable, and Berardi came into the side at right back. Berardi's form at left back was such that even Charlie Taylor could not oust him. After a good pre-season, in which he seemed to have made the left back position his own, he suffered a dislocated shoulder, after thirty-eight minutes in the 3-2 victory at Bolton Wanderers on 6th August 2017, in the first League game of the season, and had to be replaced by new signing Vurnon Anita. It was not all bad news, as on 8th August 2017, Berardi signed a new three year contract with the club, binding him to it until the end of the 2019-20 season. Even though he started behind Charlie Taylor for the left back spot in the close season, it was always certain that Taylor would leave the club, it was just a matter of his next destination. So even when Vurnon Anita arrived from Newcastle United as a replacement once Taylor has left and just for good measure Cameron Borthwick-Jackson had arrived on loan from Manchester United until the start of the New Year, the Swiss warrior would not give up his spot without a fight. So, along with Luke Ayling he was always United's first choice for the full-back positions but in the 2017-18 season it was ruined by a couple of injuries, which saw him miss five League games and two League Cup ties after being carried off in the first game of the season at Bolton Wanderers. His robust style and fiery temperament saw him get three red cards in the season, which caused him to miss a further nine League and one League Cup games, but nonetheless he always bounced back to keep Anita, Borthwick-Jackson and later Belgian import Laurens De Beck out of the team when he was available. He marked his one hundredth game for Leeds on 30th December 2017 at Birmingham City by being captain for the day, a responsibility he would later repeat when others were not available. The injury jinx hit again in the early days of the 2018-19 season near the close of the home draw with Middlesbrough and it brought to an end a series of fine performances in the centre of defence as Leeds started with a string of fine performances to lead the Championship.

AppearancesGoals
League 97/100
F.A. Cup 31
League Cup 50

(To 2017-18)