Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Udinese striker Antonio Di Natale planning party with Roberto Baggio

Antonio Di Natale is hoping to celebrate with one of Italian football's greats when he matches their prolific record.

Di Natale broke through the barrier of 200 goals in Serie A last weekend and he now has his sights set on overtaking Roberto Di Baggio's tally of 205 in the top flight of Italian football, which would place him sixth in the all-time list.

Once the 37-year-old achieves that, he plans to throw a party -- preferably with Baggio present -- before thinking towards the day when he will no longer be the one scoring the goals for Udinese, something he has done with supreme regularity for over a decade.

"Like I've said, I want to match Roberto Baggio's 205 goals," Di Natale told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "I met him in Coverciano [the Italian Football Association's training base] and I told him that I'd like it if we could have a big celebration together, maybe with him coming to Udine."

Should Di Natale reach and overtake Baggio, he will not necessarily stop playing football there and then.

"I have an agreement [to play on for another year] with club president Pozzo, but first I want to play another great six months and then we'll talk about it," added Di Natale, who has already given thought to what he would like to do when he hangs up his boots.

"I like challenges and I would love to coach Udinese," he said. "If I did coach them, then we would play the way I like it -- with a 4-3-3 formation."

It's a style of play synonymous with one of the coaches Di Natale regrets not having ever had the chance to work with. "Zdenek Zeman," he said. "I would have loved to have played for him."

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