Marco Gabbiadini

Since August 2009, Gabbiadini has co-presented Total Sport on BBC Newcastle with Simon Pryde and John Anderson.

Since retiring, Gabbiadini has run a restored Victorian hotel in York with his family. The hotel won Guest House of the Year in the 1999 York Tourism Awards. Gabbiadini has also hinted that he would be interested in television work and was a Sky pundit for Hartlepool's play-off match against Bristol City in 2004.

He started the 1991-92 season still at Roker Park, and scored five goals in nine Second Division appearances, including a spectacular six-minute hat-trick against Charlton Athletic at Upton Park on 17 September 1991. Those goals would prove to be his last for the club. His final appearance in a red and white shirt would come four days later in a 2−1 defeat to Grimsby Town at Roker Park on 21 September 1991 in front of a crowd of 16,535. Only two days later Gabbiadini broke Wearside hearts by leaving the club.

Shortly after the start of the 1991–92 season, Gabbiadini was sold to Crystal Palace for a club record transfer fee of £1.8 million. He was seen as a replacement for Ian Wright, who joined Arsenal for £2.5 million in September 1991.

Gabbiadini's third season on Wearside would see his prowess in front of goal continue as his 22 goals in 49 league appearances helped clinch Sunderland's place back in the top flight. Highlights of that season included a hat-trick against Watford at Roker Park on 9 September 1989, and the goal that Gabbiadini is most fondly remembered for, the 2nd in a 2–0 win over Newcastle United at St James' Park on 16 May 1990, in the play-off semi-final clinching Sunderland's place in the Wembley final, although Swindon Town won the game 1−0 through a Gary Bennett own goal, Sunderland went on to claim their place in the First Division as Swindon were refused entry due to a series of financial irregularities by the Swindon Town board.

Gabbiadini represented England U21 in the 1989 Toulon Tournament, which was won by France, his first appearance came in a 3−2 loss against eventual finalists Bulgaria on 5 June 1989, his second coming in another loss, this time 2−0 to the USA team in the third place play-off game on 11 June 1989. Gabbiadini would go on to represent the England B squad. The game was played at Roker Park on 24 April 1990 against Czechoslovakia. England won the game 2−0.

However the departure of manager and mentor Denis Smith would see him leave York in order to follow Denis Smith to Sunderland for a transfer fee of £80,000 on 23 September 1987. Sunderland had been relegated to the Third Division and needed a goalscorer to help fire them back to the Second Division and Gabbiadini was seen by Smith as the perfect signing. Despite this Gabbiadini's signing was seen as risky, as in order to raise funds to sign him, Smith had to sell one of Sunderland's most popular players, midfielder Mark Proctor, to Sheffield Wednesday. Gabbiadini made his Sunderland debut in a 2−0 defeat to Chester City at Roker Park. His first goals for Sunderland would come only three days later in a 3−0 victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage as he scored twice, a feat he would match in the next two games. He would quickly establish himself as a key player and a crowd favourite for Sunderland by scoring on a regular basis, and is known in Wearside folklore as part of The G-Force thanks to the partnership he struck up with Eric Gates. In his first season at the club Gabbiadini scored 21 goals in 35 league appearances to help fire Sunderland to the Third Division championship.

Gabbiadini was born to an English mother and an Italian father in Nottingham, and was educated at Nunthorpe Grammar School in York. He started his professional career at York City after being signed as an apprentice by Denis Smith at the age of 16 in 1982. His talent was spotted immediately and shortly afterwards he was quickly drafted into the England under-18 team in order to avoid being tied to playing for Italy, the birthplace of his father. By the time Gabbiadini was 17 he had made his York City debut in a 3−0 defeat to Bolton Wanderers. From then on he quickly established himself in the first team and went on to notch 18 goals in 50 starts and 21 sub appearances for the Minstermen. He also scored his first hat-trick at the age of 18 during York's 4−1 Freight Rover Trophy victory against Darlington.

Marco Gabbiadini (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko ɡabbjaˈdiːni] ; born 20 January 1968) is an English former footballer whose career lasted 18 years from 1985 to 2003. He played for 12 different clubs, scoring a total of 226 league goals.