Former Leeds United defender Gaetano Berardi has joined Swiss club AC Bellinzona. Berardi, who played 157 times for the Whites between 2014 and 2021, did have a short spell with FC Sion following his release from Leeds last summer.
He joined Sion in January, but only played nine games for the Swiss Super League side, and will now be dropping down a division in the Swiss football pyramid.
Berardi played an integral role in helping the Whites reach the Premier League in the 2019/20 season after a 16-year hiatus, and his final appearance in a Leeds shirt was in a 3-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion at Elland Road in May 2021, where he said an emotional farewell to the Leeds faithful in front of a quarter-full stadium.
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Loved by supporters for his no-nonsense defending and commitment on the field, Berardi scored two goals and picked up six red cards during his time in Yorkshire.
Bellinzona won promotion to the Swiss second tier - known as the Challenge League - last season, and have recruited Berardi as they prepare for life in a higher division. The versatile defender, who has been capped by Switzerland, turns 34 in August.
On AC Bellinzona's Instagram, the club said: "With a respectable career behind him, Gaetano wore the shirts of Lugano and Sion in Switzerland, and while abroad those of Brescia, Sampdoria and Leeds."
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