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Christian Vieri

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Christian Vieri
File:Vieri.jpg
Personal information
Full name Christian Vieri
Position(s) striker
Team information
Current team none
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 2006

Christian Vieri (born 12 July 1973) is an Italian football player, a striker who is currently without a club.

Born in Bologna, Italy, Vieri was raised in Australia, home to one of the world's largest expatriate Italian communities. He attended Prairiewood High School in western Sydney. His father Roberto Vieri played for Sydney-based club Marconi Stallions. His brother, Massimiliano Vieri, is also a professional footballer, and was an Australian international in 2004. Vieri played for Marconi Juniors when he was a child but his family soon moved back to Italy. As a result of living in Australia, Vieri has stated that his greatest sporting hero is cricketer Allan Border. He also once claimed that if he "had to do it all over again", he would be a cricketer this time.

Career

Vieri started his playing career at A.C. Prato, a small club in Serie C1 in 1989. While there, he was spotted by Torino and played his first Serie A game the next year for the Turin team. Vieri made six appearances in the league as well as in the Coppa Italia. In November 1992, he was sold to Serie B club, Pisa Calcio, scoring two goals. Another season went by, he then moved to Ravenna in Serie B, scoring 12 goals. He was subsequently sold to Venezia A.C. in Serie B, scoring 11 goals. Another move followed for the youngster, this time to Atalanta where he scored seven goals. A change of luck came when he was spotted by Juventus F.C. in the 1996-97 season. He made 23 appearances and scored eight goals in Serie A, and six goals in ten matches in Europe.

Vieri was on the move once again, this time it was to Spain and Atlético de Madrid. This is where the Vieri name became a trademark for Italian football and he formed a successful partnership in the 1998 FIFA World Cup with Roberto Baggio. Amazingly, he scored a total of 24 goals in 24 appearances for Atlético, five goals from seven appearances in Europe which led him to the become the Spanish top scorer.

After the World Cup, he moved to S.S. Lazio, where he was outstanding in his first season, scoring 12 goals in Serie A and one in Europe, winning the Cup Winners' Cup. But it all changed when Vieri was spotted by Internazionale Milano F.C. and its chairman Massimo Moratti. Vieri move to Inter Milan was for a (then) world record transfer fee.

Vieri played for Inter Milan from 1999 to 2005. In 2003, he led Serie A in scoring with 24 goals. As of the end of 2004, he has scored 22 goals in 43 matches for Italy and played for his country at the 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cup (he scored five in 1998 and four in 2002), as well as Euro 2004. Vieri is generally considered one of Italy's greatest strikers of recent times despite strong competition, and is one of Italy's most prolific World Cup goalscorers. He was named by Pelé as one of the 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

In July 2005, Vieri and Inter Milan came to a mutual agreement to terminate his contract with the club. He was then signed by cross-town rivals A.C. Milan, but left the rossoneri - where he was not a regular starter - after just six months, joining French side AS Monaco FC in order to play regularly and gain a place on Italy's roster for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Unfortunately for Vieri, however, he suffered a serious knee injury while playing for Monaco in 2006, which required extensive surgery and ruled out the possibility of playing in his third consecutive FIFA World Cup.

On July 6, 2006, Vieri agreed to a one year deal with UC Sampdoria of Serie A. On July 20, 2006, An unexpected and surprising news came out of Italy, as the speculation is rife that Christian Vieri is set to retire. On August 10, 2006, Sampdoria and Christian Vieri came to an agreement to terminate his contract with the club.

Trivia

  • As well as being left-footed, Christian Vieri is left-handed. His favorite food was never Italian, but Chinese.
  • In a rare sporting case, Christian Vieri represented Italy while his brother Max played for Australia. He and his brother, Max, joked about the possibility of becoming the first set of brothers to ever face off against one-another in an international soccer match. Ironically, Italy and Australia ended up playing each other at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but neither of the Vieri brothers was present in the national squads.

External links

Italy squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup
Italy
Italy squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup
Italy
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