Christian Vieri is one of the most famous and well respected Italian strikers of recent times. Although he had a nomadic career taking in 12 different clubs, his success for Inter Milan and Lazio, along with his prolific scoring record for the national team, earned him a place in Pele’s top 125 living footballers list of 2004.
Born in Bologna on the 12th of July 1973, Vieri spent his early childhood in Australia, briefly playing for the Sydney based club Marconi Stallions, in which his father was also a player. The family soon moved back to Italy and Vieri was spotted by Torino and spent his teenage years on their books before being sold in 1992 to Serie C club Pisa Calcio.
Over the next three years Vieri played for Ravenna, Venezia and Atlanta. Despite hitting double figures for goals at both Ravenna and Venezia, Vieri consistently failed to nail down a permanent club.
A change of luck followed when he joined Juventus and went on to score 14 goals, finishing as joint top goal scorer for the club in the 1996-97 season. His impressive performances for Juventus earned him his first international call up and he went on to play in the qualifiers for the 1998 World Cup. Despite his goal scoring prowess Vieri moved again, this time to Athletico Madrid.
A superb season in Spain in which he scored 24 times in 24 league appearances built on his growing reputation and earned him a move to Lazio after the 1998 World Cup. Vieri’s nomadic existence continued after just the one season with Lazio (in which he won the Cup Winners Cup) as he soon found himself being courted by Inter chairman Massimo Moratti.
A then record fee of £32 million secured his services and he soon struck up a partnership with Ronaldo. Apparently he chose the number 32 shirt to represent his price tag. Being able to score with both feet and his head soon set Vieri on the goal scoring trail.
Although the chop-and-change managerial philosophy of the Inter hierarchy didn’t help the club in challenging for honours Vieri’s goal scoring form continued and he won the Capocannoniere in the 2002/03 season with 24 goals. He was a fans favourite but an injury against Valencia in the Champions league campaign had far reaching consequences as he never really regained his form.
In 2004 some fans turned on him even though he kept up a respectable goal ratio. He failed to score at Euro 2004 and responded to press criticism with his now infamous statement ‘I’m more of a man than the lot of you put together. I have a conscience.’
With his contract with Inter terminated by mutual consent in 2005 Vieri joined rivals Milan in what became the start of another period of joining many clubs with little success. He left Inter with a record of 103 goals in 143 appearances but would never reach those heights again.
Vieri saw little game time and left after six months to join Monaco in an effort to gain a place in the Italy World Cup Squad, ‘Going to the World Cup is an objective and in order to do that I need to play matches’. Unfortunately he sustained a knee injury which ruled him out of the World Cup winning squad, and the pain was deepened when manager Marco Lippi admitted that if Vieri had been fit he would have included him in the squad.
His career plummeted after the injury and over the next three years he had two separate stints with Atlanta and a season at Fiorentina. On 20th October 2009 he retired from football after an unproductive start to the season. Although he bowed out a shadow of the player he was at his peak many fans remember the old Vieri and his goal scoring abilities. A record of 23 goals in 49 appearances for the national side endeared him to many Italians and he remains an icon for most Inter fans.
Since his retirement Vieri has started a chain of restaurants in Milan and has his own fashion brand. The latest news concerning these ventures was that recently in Ibiza where Vieri had to be hospitalized when he was bitten on the nose by a former business associate; an attack, which he claims was unprovoked.
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He spoiled his achievements by becoming nothing more than a mercenary at the end.
Vieri will always be my favourite player ever, I think that every football fan has that one player they fall in love with and can never love another as much. I didn’t get into football until the age of 10, it was the 1998 WC and it was due to seeing the sumptuous chip by the man against Cameroon….then there was the norway celebration which resulted in many ripped trousers in the school ground.
I chose to support inter and a year later my hero joined, in a Barron time when inter fans had little to celebrate, Vieri was giving us reason to celebrate almost every time he played, with his head or his left and right they all went in – his best is surely against Parma in 98, his entire repertoire is on display there, quite simply a hulk doesn’t score such a beautiful goal.
You can show me videos of maradona, messi or ronaldo…but only bobos goals will make me grin and brim with joy.
my al tym best striker..he made me 2 support Italy…