Christian Vieri

Vieri redirects here. For other uses of Vieri, see Vieri (disambiguation)

Christian Vieri (born July 12, 1973 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna) is an Italy Association football striker, who plays for Atalanta B.C..

Biography

Born in Bologna, Italy, his family moved to Australia for a period, in the suburb of Wetherill Park, New South Wales. He attended Prairiewood High School in western Sydney. His father Roberto Vieri played for Sydney-based club Marconi Stallions. His brother, Max Vieri, is also a professional footballer, and was an Australia national football team in 2004. Vieri played for Marconi Juniors when he was a child but his family soon moved back to Italy.

Club 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 Calcio 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 Calcio 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 B.C. 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, making him joint topscorer for Juventus that season along with Alen Boksic.

Vieri was on the move once again, this time it was to Spain and Atlético Madrid. Amazingly, he scored a total of 24 goals in 24 league appearances for Atlético (and an additional five goals from seven appearances in Europe), which led him to the win the Pichichi Trophy, as the league's top scorer. After the 1998 FIFA 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 F.C. Internazionale Milano and its chairman Massimo Moratti. Vieri's move to Inter Milan was for a (then) world record transfer fee. The Inter coach at the time, Marcello Lippi had requested the player after their successful season together at Juventus.

At Inter, Vieri formed a potentially dangerous partnership with Ronaldo up front, but because of injuries to both players , they were not able to play together often. He was impressive in his first couple of seasons, but constant mangerial changes meant that Inter could not challenge for the Scudetto. It was under disciplined Argentinian coach, Hector Cuper, that Vieri and Inter really began to flourish and challenge for honours. Vieri was made the focal point of the attack and scored 22 goals in 25 games in the Serie A 2001-02 as Inter narrowly missed out on the Scudetto after their infamous last day defeat to Lazio. The following season he was Serie A Capocannoniere after scoring an impressive 23 goals in just 24 appearances. In addition, he scored 3 goals in Inter's UEFA Champions League campaign and formed a potent partnership with Hernan Crespo. He scored both of Inter's goals in the quarter final victory over Valencia CF. Sadly, Vieri was injured during the 2nd leg of this game and therefore played no part in the semi final defeat to city rivals AC Milan.

The following year, Cuper was sacked only a few games into the season and was replaced by Alberto Zaccheroni. Vieri did not get along with his new manager and also had many of the Inter fans turn on him after his dip in form. In addition, he had shown his discontent at the sale of strike partner Hernan Crespo to Chelsea FC. When Roberto Mancini replaced Zaccheroni in the summer of 2004, Vieri played the majority games upfront with Adriano Leite Ribeiro. It was clear to many though that the injury he had sustained against Valencia had taken its toll on Vieri and he was no longer as sharp in front of goal, despite his respectable goal output.

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. 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 a one year deal with UC Sampdoria of Serie A. On August 29, Vieri returned to Atalanta and signed a one-year minimum wage contract worth 1500€ per month. Although he received a paltry salary, Vieri was to earn another €100,000 for every goal he scores, leaving chairman Ivan Ruggeri to comment, "If things go well, Vieri will cost me two million euros." Vieri scored 2 goals in 7 substitute appearances, including one long-range goal.

On June 2007, Atalanta announced they chose not to offer a contract extension to Vieri. His contract therefore ended on June 30. On July 19, 2007, Vieri signed a one-year contract with ACF Fiorentina worth about 2.75 million dollars and was officially presented to the press on July 21, 2007.

On June 30, 2008 he signed for Atalanta B.C. on a 1-year-contract.

International Career

Vieri has scored 22 goals in 43 matches for Italy national football team and played for his country at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, scoring five times, and the 2002 FIFA World Cup, scoring four times, though he endured a less successful tournament at 2004 European Football Championship, whilst he missed 2000 European Football Championship and World Cup 2006 through injury. Vieri is generally considered to be Italy's greatest strikers of recent times despite strong competition, and is one of Italy's most prolific World Cup goal scorers. His 9 goals in the 1998 and 2002 World Cup's place him joint top with Paolo Rossi and Roberto Baggio in Italy's all time World Cup goalscorers. He was named by Pelé as one of the FIFA 100 in March 2004.

Vieri received his first international cap during the 96/97 season after some impressive displays for Juventus. He scored a key goal for Italy in the play off against Russia national football team during 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification for the 1998 World Cup. At the finals of the tournament in France he formed a strong partnership with Roberto Baggio. Vieri opened the scoring against Chile national football team after a delightful assist from his strike partner. He went on to score 3 more goals during the 1998 FIFA World Cup - Group B. Vieri scored Italy's only goal in the round of 16 match against Norway. He scored Italy's fourth penalty in the quarterfinal shooutout against France but Luigi Di Biaggio missed the fifth and Italy were eliminated.

Vieri missed out on Euro 2000 after suffering a recurrence of an old thigh injury, during the 4th place playoff with Parma at the end of the Serie A 1999-2000 after a collision with Gianluigi Buffon, who would also miss out on the tournament.

Italy played Vieri as a lone striker in the 2002 Fifa World Cup, scoring four goals in four games. He managed a brace in the opening game against Ecuador and scored Italy's only goal in the 2-1 defeat to Croatia despite having a previous goal controversially ruled out for Offside (football). In the Round of 16 match against South Korea national football team he opened the scoring in the 18th minute, scoring a powerful header from a Francesco Totti corner. Italy led the game until the Koreans equalised 3 minutes before the end. In extra time Vieri played a through ball to Damiano Tommasi, thus putting him through on goal. The midfielder scored from this position but the goal was disallowed due to offside, even though camera reviews show Tommasi to be onside. Italy was eventually eliminated by South Korea by a Golden Goal.

Vieri was once again the main striker in Italy's ill fated Euro 2004 campaign. However, this time he did not fare so well, scoring no goals as Italy were eliminated in the first round.

Vieri also missed World Cup 2006 after suffering a knee meniscus injury in a Ligue 1 match against Paris Saint Germain on 26th March 2006. Although Vieri would not necessarily have been a starter for Lippi's side, it was widely accepted that Vieri would have been selected in their squad since Lippi had picked him throughout qualifying and was very fond of the player after their time together at Juventus and Inter.