Federation captain Janne Andersson today presented his 25-man squad for the European qualifiers against Malta and Spain in mid-October.
One name stuck out: 29-year-old Riccardo Gagliolo.
Riccardo Gagliolo has a Swedish mother, who grew up in Njurunda outside Sundsvall, but himself grew up in northwestern Italy, in the Ligurian town of Andora. Despite this, he has always enjoyed dual citizenship, Swedish and Italian.
A then 21-year-old Gagliolo spent the 2011/2012 season in the fourth division club ASD Imperia before then joining Capri, then a club in Serie C. During five seasons in Capri, he was involved in taking them two divisions, to Serie A. 2015 / 2016 the hill played 31 games in the Italian high league, in a team that went out. Already then, in an interview with La Gazetta dello Sport, he told about his dream of playing in the Swedish national team.
Since 2017, the Swedish / Italian has been housed in Parma, the club which went bankrupt as late as 2015 and was degraded to Italian fourth division Serie D. Gagliolo jumped on the Parma train as the club made it to Serie B.
Already in the first season, Parma took the step up to the finroom. Gagliolo hung on and has been an important puzzle piece ever since.
But it wasn't until about a year ago that the Serie A-back started to make an impact on the Swedes' radar after a couple of nice matches just in the opening for the Parma league newcomer.
- If he is good enough, it is obvious that we will take him out: We definitely do not disqualify him if he is now unable to Swedish, but I have no idea, Andersson said in connection with a national team selection.
This autumn he seems to have convinced Janne Andersson that he is a man for the Swedish national team and today he was thus selected by the league captain.
In Parma, the 29-year-old has mixed games as a left-back inside a three-back line, playing left-back in a 4-3-3. In Janne Andersson's team building, he is meant as a left back.
Source: La Gazzetta dello Sport, Expressen.