48 Facts About Christian Vieri

1.

Christian Vieri was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pele as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations.

2.

Something of a footballing nomad, Christian Vieri played for no fewer than 12 clubs throughout his career, mainly in Italy, but in Spain and France.

3.

Christian Vieri started his career with Torino in 1991, but his most notable and successful spells were those at Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Lazio and Inter, clubs with which he won several honours.

4.

At international level, Christian 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.

5.

Christian Vieri is 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 took part at Euro 2004.

6.

Christian Vieri stated in an interview that he would have liked to have been a professional cricketer.

7.

Christian Vieri's brother, Massimiliano Vieri, was a professional footballer and was an Australian international in 2004.

8.

Christian Vieri played for Marconi Juniors and WS Wanderers Juniors when he was a child but his family subsequently moved back to Italy.

9.

In November 1992, Christian Vieri was sold to Serie B club Pisa, scoring two goals in 18 appearances.

10.

Christian Vieri made 23 appearances and scored 8 goals in Serie A, and six goals in ten matches in Europe, making him joint top scorer for Juventus that season along with Alen Boksic.

11.

Christian Vieri scored a total of 24 goals in 24 league appearances for Atletico and finished the season with 29 goals from 32 appearances, which saw him receive the Pichichi Trophy as the league's top scorer.

12.

Christian Vieri furthermore asserted: "If I could have turned back time, I'd have stayed in Turin".

13.

Christian Vieri revealed a funny story about the aforementioned back-to-back hat-tricks against Real Zaragoza and PAOK.

14.

However, Christian Vieri never picked up his Ferrari at the end of the season, as he felt he had betrayed the President leaving Atletico after just one year.

15.

Christian Vieri partnered Chilean international Marcelo Salas for the Rome-based club, managed by Sven-Goran Eriksson.

16.

Christian Vieri had a successful season, scoring 14 goals in 28 appearances and won the Cup Winners' Cup.

17.

At Inter, Christian 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.

18.

Christian Vieri was impressive in his first couple of seasons, but constant managerial changes meant that Inter could not challenge for the Scudetto.

19.

Christian Vieri scored both of Inter's goals in the quarter-final victory over Valencia.

20.

Christian Vieri was injured during the second leg of this game and therefore played no part in the semi-final defeat to city rivals AC Milan.

21.

Christian Vieri did not get along with his new manager and had many of the Inter fans turn on him after his dip in form.

22.

When Roberto Mancini replaced Zaccheroni in the summer of 2004, Christian Vieri played the majority games upfront with Adriano.

23.

Christian Vieri signed a one-year deal with Fiorentina in the summer of 2007 and he was officially presented to the press on 21 July 2007.

24.

Christian Vieri signed a one-year-contract for Atalanta on 30 June 2008; however, in early April, both Atalanta and Vieri mutually agreed that the contract was to be rescinded after only making nine appearances for the club.

25.

Christian Vieri announced his retirement from professional football on 20 October 2009.

26.

Christian Vieri scored 23 goals in 49 matches for Italy between 1997 and 2005.

27.

Christian Vieri played for his country at the 1998 World Cup, scoring five times, and the 2002 World Cup, scoring four times.

28.

Christian Vieri endured a less successful tournament at Euro 2004, whilst he missed Euro 2000 and 2006 World Cup through injury.

29.

Christian Vieri is generally considered to be Italy's greatest pure striker of recent times, despite strong competition, and is one of Italy's most prolific World Cup goal scorers.

30.

Christian Vieri was named by Pele as one of the 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

31.

Christian Vieri opened the scoring against Chile after an assist from his strike partner.

32.

Christian Vieri went on to score three more goals during the group stage: two against Cameroon, and one against Austria.

33.

Christian Vieri scored Italy's only goal in the round of 16 match against Norway.

34.

Christian Vieri scored Italy's fourth penalty in the quarter-final shootout against hosts and eventual champions France, but Luigi Di Biagio missed the fifth spot-kick, and Italy were eliminated.

35.

Just one minute after the Korean equaliser, Christian Vieri missed an open goal which would have put Italy in front.

36.

Christian Vieri was the main striker in Italy's ill-fated Euro 2004 campaign.

37.

Christian Vieri played in three tournaments, but failed to win a medal in each of them, missing out on the Euro 2000 runners-up medal and the 2006 World Cup winners medal due to injury.

38.

Christian Vieri was a complete, prolific and opportunistic striker, with a keen eye for goal.

39.

Christian Vieri was predominantly left-footed, although he was capable of scoring with both feet, as well as with his head, and from volleys.

40.

Christian Vieri has often been described as a large, old fashioned centre forward, due to his powerful physical presence and outstanding aerial ability; he is the all-time top scorer of headed goals in Italian league history.

41.

Christian Vieri excelled at finding space to anticipate opponents and get on the end of passes.

42.

Christian Vieri's father, Roberto, was a footballer, who played both in Italy and Australia.

43.

Christian Vieri has been involved in many high-profile relationships, including those with models Elisabetta Canalis, Elena Santarelli, Debora Salvalaggio, Fernanda Lessa, Melissa Satta and Jazzma Kendrick, among others.

44.

Christian Vieri started another clothing brand with close friend and footballer Cristian Brocchi and model Alena Seredova.

45.

Christian Vieri presented a footvolley cup with the name Bobo summer cup, in 2018.

46.

In 2017, Christian Vieri began a relationship with Italian showgirl Costanza Caracciolo.

47.

Christian Vieri featured as Ivan Drago in the 2000 Italian film, Picasso's face.

48.

Christian Vieri playfully suggested to sell the player, while Gattuso jokingly asked for getting Montella out of the studio as he was behaving like a jinx.