Daniel Caligiuri is currently keeping fit with lower league clubs. Rumours about an engagement of the ex-Schalker quickly arose. It will not come to that.
Daniel Caligiuri has experienced a lot in his more than ten-year professional career. The 35-year-old played in the Champions League, won the DFB Cup and became a derby hero for FC Schalke 04 several times.
This summer, a new experience was added for the right winger: for the first time, he was without a club at the start of a new season. Caligiuri’s contract with FC Augsburg expired at the end of last season. He has not yet found a new club.
To avoid having to miss out on team training, he has been keeping fit for some time with two lower-class clubs: regional league club TSG Balingen and Oberliga club FC 08 Villingen from his home town.
It didn’t take long for rumours of Caligiuri’s permanent commitment to Villingen to surface. The club wanted to sign him as a player-coach, according to media reports. But that will not happen – as Caligiuri himself made clear.
I am totally eager to prove myself again
Daniel Caligiuri in Kicker
“I’m currently keeping fit at TSG Balingen and FC Villingen. Many thanks for that. Media reports about a further commitment to said clubs do not correspond to the truth,” he wrote in his Instagram story.
So it remains open where the German-Italian will continue his career. In any case, he does not seem to be thinking about ending his career yet. “I’m really keen to prove myself again,” Caligiuri told Kicker a few weeks ago. “And I want to do it at a club and at a location where I can make a difference and have an impact. It’s not about just adding another round to my career.”
In any case, a possible new club would gain a highly experienced professional. Caligiuri played 372 games in the Bundesliga – most of them for Schalke. He moved to Gelsenkirchen from VfL Wolfsburg at the start of 2017, before moving on to Augsburg three and a half years later. “I had a very great and also successful time at Schalke,”[url=Crowning glory were the vice-championship and Champions League games.]Caligiuri recalled last March[/url]. “The crowning glory was the vice-championship and the games in the Champions League. “