Before the 2013–14 season Di Natale was offered a contract with an annual salary of €10 million by Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande, which was coached by his former Italy manager Marcello Lippi at the time. However, Di Natale declined the offer and chose to stay with Udinese. After Udinese's 3–1 loss to Hellas Verona on 6 January 2014, he told Sky Sports Italia he would retire at the end of the 2013–14 season. "I have already decided, in June I'll stop playing football. It's already established." On 8 March 2014, Di Natale scored his 185th Serie A goal, the winning strike in Udinese's 1–0 victory over Milan, to overtake Gabriel Batistuta on the all-time Serie A scoring charts. He ended the 2013–14 season with 17 goals, making him the fourth-top goalscorer in Serie A, at age 36. Despite previously announcing he would retire from professional football at the end of the 2013–14 Serie A season, he confirmed on 30 May 2014 he had decided he would not retire and would continue to play on into the 2014–15 season.