Sampdoria captain Fabio Quagliarella was on target against Empoli, ending a 139-day goal drought and scoring for the 18th consecutive calendar year, but also climbing the all-time Serie A charts.
The 39-year-old opened the scoring at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris this afternoon from an Antonio Candreva assist.
It was his first Serie A strike in 139 days, since the 3-3 draw with Udinese on October 3, 2021.
This also means Quagliarella has found the net in the top flight for 18 consecutive calendar years, starting in 2005 and going all the way to 2022.
That is a feat achieved also by Roberto Baggio and Sergio Pellissier.
He’s still outside the top five, though, because Jose Altafini, Roberto Mancini and Gianni Rivera did it for 19 years in a row, Alessandro Del Piero 20 years and Francesco Totti managed 23 years from 1994 to 2016.
Quagliarella went on to complete his brace 15 minutes later, which represented his 100th goal in the Sampdoria jersey.
It was also his 180th Serie A career goal, allowing him to leapfrog Giampiero Boniperti in the all-time charts, placing him in 13th position.
18 – Fabio Quagliarella has become the eighth player in the Serie A history able of scoring in 18 consecutive calendar years, after:
Altafini
G. Rivera
R. Mancini
R. Baggio
A. Del Piero
F. Totti
S. PellissierPerseverance.#SampdoriaEmpoli
— OptaPaolo 🏆 (@OptaPaolo) February 19, 2022