Empoli is looking for a new defender for the next season. The hottest name is that of Gabriele Guarino, a 2004-born central defender who has already shown his qualities in Serie B. Guarino grew up in Audace Molfetta and then in the youth sector of Bari, before being acquired by Empoli in 2020. He completed his training path passing from Under 17 to Primavera, until the first calls in Serie A with the first team. The first real passage among professionals comes in February 2024, when Modena takes him on loan from Empoli. The yellow and blue parenthesis, however, remains mainly a transitional stage. In the following summer, on August 29, 2024, Guarino passes to Carrarese, always on a temporary basis, linking himself to the Apuan club until June 30, 2025. It is there that he begins to find space and continuity in Serie B, imposing himself for physical structure, aerial game, marking and ability to exit the ball with his feet. With Carrarese he also signs the first leap of quality in his career: in the 2024/25 season he collects 16 appearances in the championship, scoring 2 goals and serving 1 assist. Returned to Empoli in the summer of 2025, the 2004 takes the scene definitively in the cadet championship: 35 appearances in Serie B, 3 goals and 2 assists, numbers that earn him a place in the Top 11 Italian Under 23 of Serie BKT. A physical but not static central defender, strong in the aerial game and increasingly incisive also in the opponent's area, represents one of the most mature products of the Empoli school and one of the Italian defenders to follow in the future.