Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Udinese pay tribute to 200-goal Antonio Di Natale

Udinese took out a full-page advertisement in La Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday to pay tribute to their forward Antonio Di Natale after he scored his 200th goal in Serie A on Sunday.

Di Natale, 37, celebrated his 400th appearance with a landmark goal in a 1-1 draw with Chievo that takes him to seventh on the list of all-time top Serie A goalscorers, just five short of Roberto Baggio, whom he hopes to overtake this season.

After Baggio, on 205, Di Natale would need 10 more goals to match Jose Altafini and one more to draw level with the legendary Giuseppe Meazza. The list is led by 1938 World Cup winner Silvio Piola on 275 with Roma's Francesco Totti, the only other player in the top 10 still appearing regularly in Serie A, on 237.

"I'd like to thank all of my teammates down the years, my family, my children and my parents, who are watching down on me," Di Natale told Sky Sport Italia. "[Beating Baggio] is one of the objectives I had at the start of the season."

Di Natale had announced in January that he would retire at the end of last season, but he decided to play on for a further year and revealed he could even continue for the 2015-16 campaign.

"I'm thinking about it," he said. "I've still got six months left to make up my mind, but there wouldn't be any problems with the Pozzi family."

With seven goals in 11 games, he is third in the Serie A scoring charts this season and well on his way to breaking into double figures for the ninth season in a row, and he could even finish as the league's top scorer for a third time, having taken the capocannoniere award in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

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