*Club domestic league appearances and goals ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 11 September 2022
Gabriele Gori (born 10 October 1987) is an Italian beach soccer player who plays as a forward.
Known for his agility in scoring many audacious bicycle kicks, he is one of the most prolific goalscorers of all time in the sport, having amassed over 800 as of 2022,[2] including winning the top scorer award at the 2017 and 2019 editions of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, and becoming the all-time top scorer of the Italy national team. He is recognised as being one the world's best players.
Career
International
Gori originally played association football professionally, reaching as high as Serie C including two clubs between 2006 and 2008.[3] However, injuries prevented his football career from advancing further.[4]
In 2010, Gori was invited by a friend to play beach soccer at a memorial event with the team of his hometown, Viareggio.[3][4][5] Gori was sceptical about the sport and only accepted the invitation because of his friend's passion.[5] Despite his reservations, the event went well for Gori and he was invited to continue to play with Viareggio.[4][5] That summer, the then Italy coach, Massimiliano Esposito, having seen Gori play during the Italian League, called him up for his debut in the national team at the 2010 Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) Superfinal in Lisbon, aged 22.[3]
Gori at the 2017 Persian Beach Soccer Cup.
Gori recovered from knee surgery in time to be included in the Italian team for the 2011 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup on home sand in Ravenna,[3] but suffered at the tournament with a fever.[6] At his next World Cup appearance in 2015, he scored his 100th goal for Italy during the semi-final defeat to Tahiti,[7] ending the tournament as its joint second top scorer.[8] Later that summer, he scored four of Italy's five goals in the gold medal match of the Mediterranean Beach Games versus Egypt,[3][9] securing Italy's first major honour for ten years.[10] After earning his 100th cap for Italy in September 2016,[11] Gori was then voted as one of the three best players in the world at that year's annual season-ending Beach Soccer Stars awards ceremony[12] and also won the Pallone Azzurro (Blue Ball) award for best Italian player of the year bestowed by the Italian Football Federation.[13] His biggest individual accolade came six months later at the 2017 World Cup, where he won the Golden Boot (top scorer) with 17 goals,[14] and his 12 goals during the 2018 EBSL season helped Italy secure their first European crown in 13 years, the biggest title of Gori's career.[10]
Gori began 2019 by registering his 200th goal for Gli Azzurri[15] in what was his most prolific ever start to a season,[16] during which he overtook Paolo Palmacci to become Italy's all-time top goalscorer.[5] But his season then took a set-back as he missed out on winning Italy's second gold medal at the Mediterranean Beach Games due to injury.[17] However, he returned to end the year with a silver medal at the 2019 World Cup, and won the Golden Boot once again (despite playing with an injured foot),[18] the first player to win consecutive top scorer awards at the World Cup since Madjer in 2005 and 2006.[19] He was also named as one of the tournament's top ten best players, out of the 192 participants.[20] Gori was also once again named one of the world's best three players and named amongst the world dream team for 2019 at the Beach Soccer Stars awards.[12]
He scored his 300th goal for Italy in a 12–0 victory versus Denmark during an ultimately unsuccessful World Cup qualifying campaign in June 2021.[22] Gori's final match of the 2022 season was marred by him receiving a red card after just four minutes of the EBSL encounter versus Spain.[23] He then suffered a "serious"[2][24]cruciate injury[25] and did not return to fitness until July 2023;[26][27] his recovery was described as being "slow" by October,[25] and he was subsequently left out of Italy's 18-man shortlist for the 2024 World Cup.[28]
Club
Domestically, Gori began playing for Viareggio in 2010,[1] appearing alongside childhood friends and fellow national team players Andrea Carpita, Dario Ramacciotti, Simone Marinai, Matteo Marrucci and Michele di Palma.[3][29] His personal highlight came in the 2016 season when the team won the treble of the Euro Winners Cup (EWC), Coppa Italia and the Italian League;[3] in 2018, he overtook Paolo Palmacci to become the all-time leading goalscorer of the latter, with over 300.[30] It was also playing for Viareggio in 2019 when he scored his most memorable goal in beach soccer, a trademark overhead kick attempt converted from inside his own half which sealed an extra-time victory over Catania in a league match; the goal went notably viral,[4][31][32][33] with Sky Sport Italia describing it as "driving commentators, the public, and the web crazy."[34] Enrico Pace of Lucca in Diretta assessed the goal as, "sci-fi... that will remain in the history of beach soccer."[16]
In 2020, it was announced Gori was leaving Viareggio after 10 years,[35] having played approximately 150 matches and scoring 350 goals for the club in all competitions.[1] He joined Catania[36] on a three-year contract.[37] His link-up with fellow national team striker Emmanuele Zurlo at the club was described "as if a Serie A club could deploy Immobile and Insigne up front."[38] In 2023, he signed a two-year deal with Pisa.[2][24]
He has also had brief stints at the EWC and other international club events for the likes of Braga of Portugal, Artur Music of Ukraine, Boca Gdańsk of Poland and FC City of Russia.
Style of play
Gori is known for being a lethal goal poacher, possessing exceptional technique in executing goals. He is particularly famed for his ability in performing successful bicycle kicks, so much so that he is nicknamed in Italian, "il re delle rovesciate" (English: the king of bicycle kicks).[3][5] He is also nicknamed, "Tin-Tin".[4][5]
He studied and modelled his play style off of his beach soccer idol, Amarelle, also known for his acrobatics and overhead kicks.[3][5]
Personal life
Gori is an estate agent and runs his own business in his hometown (as of 2019).[3][5] He was formerly a quantity surveyor.[3] At the beginning of his beach soccer career, his father believed he was making a mistake dedicating so much time to the sport.[3] He claims to cope well with balancing work and his beach soccer career but that it has got increasingly difficult.[5] Gori has also fathered a son, Cristian (born December 2017).[29] He supports Juventus.[3]
