Gilardino training with Montreal Impact

The Montreal Impact's propensity for the aged Italian striker is well-known and yields good results, so much so that Joey Saputo's French-Canadian side is willing to triple down on the experiment by opening the doors for well-traveled forward Alberto Gilardino.

Gilardino is in Montreal this week and will be hanging out at its Centre Nutrilait facility to train, or so the club says. Though the Impact did not quite specify if that open invitation also serves as a trial for a potential signing, the 35-year-old certainly fits the bill at Montreal.

The former AC Milan and Fiorentina man spent one season with Bologna, a club owned by Saputo. The club says Gilardino "wants to get back in shape in Montreal."

But if Gilardino intends to sign and show for the Impact, he'll need to follow in his predecessors' footsteps and replicate the goal-scoring heroics of both Marco Di Vaio and Matteo Mancosu.

Sitting seventh in the Eastern Conference in search of a playoff berth, Montreal could certainly use his goal-scoring instinct down this final stretch, too.

He's currently a free agent.