Christian Vieri

Christian Vieri (Italian pronunciation: [ˈkristjam ˈvjɛːri]; born 12 July 1973), commonly known as Bobo Vieri, is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre forward. Having been born in Italy, Vieri moved with his family to Australia as a child, before returning to Italy to pursue his professional career at a young age. He then spent the bulk of his career playing in the Serie A. In March 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations.

A prolific goalscorer, for a number of years, he was regarded as one of the best strikers of this generation, leading to him becoming the world's most expensive player in 1999 when Inter Milan paid Lazio £32 million (€43 million) for his services. Something of a footballing nomad, Vieri played for no fewer than 12 clubs throughout his career, mainly in Italy, but also in Spain and France. He started his career with Torino in 1991, but his most notable and successful spells were those at Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Lazio and Inter, clubs with which he won several honours.

As well as picking up several winners medals during his career, Vieri also claimed many individual awards including the Pichichi Trophy and Capocannoniere awards for the league's top scorer in Spain and Italy respectively, and the Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year twice. At international level, Vieri scored 23 goals in 49 appearances for Italy between 1997 and 2005, and is the joint ninth-highest goalscorer for his national team, alongside Francesco Graziani. He is also Italy's highest ever goalscorer in the FIFA World Cup, along with Roberto Baggio and Paolo Rossi, with a combined nine goals from nine matches at the 1998 and 2002 editions of the tournament; he also took part at Euro 2004.

Born in Bologna, Italy, to active professional footballer Roberto Vieri and Christiane "Nathalie" Rivaux, Vieri is of Italian and French descent as his mother was born in Casablanca and raised in Paris. He spent the first years of his life in the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region while his Prato-born father played for Bologna. With Roberto Vieri's 1977 transfer to Marconi Stallions, the family moved to Sydney, Australia, residing in the suburb of Wetherill Park in South Western Sydney, where young Christian attended Patrician Brothers' College, Fairfield. It is from his father that he inherited his nickname Bobo which he carried with him throughout his career.

During his time in Australia, Vieri developed a love for both football and cricket, a sport he still follows to this day. He stated in an interview that he would have liked to have been a professional cricketer. His younger brother, Massimiliano "Max" Vieri, was also a professional footballer and was an Australian international in 2004. Vieri played for Marconi Juniors when he was a child but his family subsequently moved back to Italy. In an interview at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Vieri named his all-time sporting hero as Australian cricketer Allan Border, and said that as a child he was better at cricket than football.

Vieri started his playing career at Marconi Stallions. Upon his return to Italy in 1988, his first club was Santa Lucia, a team from Prato, where his first coach was Luciano Diamanti, the father of the player Alessandro Diamanti. The next year he became affiliated with Prato and scored several goals in the Campionato Nazionale Dante Berretti.

The following year, he moved to Torino after being spotted by Serino Rampanti, who recommended him to the coach Sergio Vatta. The president of the Prato, Andrea Toccafondi, did not want to sell the promising striker. To convince him to sell Vieri to Torino, the Granata also had to buy the son of Toccafondi, Paolo, who was a goalkeeper. After a year in the Torino youth ranks, Vieri was given his first team debut at age 18, on 30 October 1991 in the 1991–92 Coppa Italia under Emiliano Mondonico; he scored the second goal in a 2–0 win for Torino against Lazio. On 15 December of the same year, he made his official debut in Serie A during the final minutes of a home game against Fiorentina (2–0). He would later score his first goal in the league in a match won 4–0 against Genoa. At the end of the 1991–92 season, Vieri would pick up a runners up medal as an unused substitute in the 1992 UEFA Cup final, lost on away goals to Ajax.

In November 1992, Vieri was sold to Serie B club Pisa, scoring two goals in 18 appearances. He would only stay in Pisa for one season, moving to fellow Serie B side Ravenna for the 1993–94 season, where he scored 12 goals in 32 appearances. He was subsequently transferred to another Serie B club for the 1994–95 season, Venezia, where he scored 11 goals in 29 appearances.