Christian Vieri (born 12 July 1973), often called Bobo Vieri, is a famous Italian former footballer. He played as a centre forward, which means he was a main goal scorer for his teams.

Vieri was born in Italy but moved to Australia with his family when he was a child. He later returned to Italy to start his professional football career. He played for many different clubs, mostly in Italy, but also in Spain and France.

In 2004, he was chosen by the legendary footballer Pelé as one of the 125 greatest living footballers. Vieri was known for scoring many goals. For a while, he was even the world's most expensive player when Inter Milan bought him from Lazio in 1999.

He won several awards, including the top scorer awards in both the Spanish and Italian leagues. For the Italian national team, Vieri scored 23 goals in 49 games between 1997 and 2005. He is one of Italy's highest goal scorers in the FIFA World Cup, with nine goals in two tournaments.

Early Life and Australian Connection
Club Career Highlights
International Career for Italy
Style of Play
Life After Football
Career statistics
- Club
- International
Honours
See also

Early Life and Australian Connection

Christian Vieri was born in Bologna, Italy. His father, Roberto Vieri, was also a professional footballer. When Christian was four years old, his family moved to Sydney, Australia. They lived in a place called Wetherill Park.

While in Australia, Christian grew to love both football and cricket. He even said he would have liked to be a professional cricketer! His younger brother, Max Vieri, also became a professional footballer and played for Australia. Christian played for a junior team called Marconi Juniors before his family moved back to Italy.

Club Career Highlights

Starting His Journey

Vieri began his football journey in Italy with a team called Santa Lucia in 1988. The next year, he joined Prato. He then moved to Torino in 1990.

He made his first team debut for Torino in 1991 when he was 18. He even scored a goal in his first game! He also played his first Serie A game that year.

After Torino, Vieri played for several other clubs in Italy's lower leagues, like Pisa, Ravenna, and Venezia. He scored many goals for these teams.

Reaching Serie A

In 1995, Vieri returned to Italy's top league, Serie A, joining Atalanta. He scored 9 goals in 21 games.

His big break came in 1996 when he joined Juventus. He scored 8 goals in Serie A and 6 goals in European matches. With Juventus, he won the 'Scudetto (the Italian league title) in the 1996–97 season.

Time in Spain with Atlético Madrid

In 1997, Vieri moved to Spain to play for Atlético Madrid. He quickly became a star there. He scored 24 goals in just 24 league games! This made him the top scorer in the Spanish league, winning the Pichichi Trophy.

He scored amazing goals, including two hat-tricks (three goals in one game) in a row. He finished the season with 29 goals in 32 games.

Winning with Lazio

After his great season in Spain, Vieri returned to Italy in 1998 to play for Lazio. He had a successful season, scoring 14 goals. He also helped Lazio win the Cup Winners' Cup, scoring the first goal in the final match.

Star Striker at Inter Milan

In 1999, Vieri made a record-breaking move to Inter Milan. He stayed at Inter for six seasons, which was the longest he played for any club.

At Inter, Vieri was a key player. He often played alongside other famous strikers like Ronaldo and Hernán Crespo. In the 2001–02 season, he scored 22 goals in 25 games. The next season, he was the top scorer in Serie A, scoring 24 goals in 23 games. He also scored important goals in the Champions League.

On 6 January 2004, he scored his 100th goal for Inter Milan, a big achievement!

Later Career Clubs

After Inter, Vieri played for several other clubs. In 2005, he joined AC Milan, Inter's city rivals. He then moved to Monaco in France in 2006. Unfortunately, he got a knee injury there, which meant he missed the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

He later returned to Atalanta and then played for Fiorentina. He signed with Atalanta again in 2008 before deciding to retire from professional football on 20 October 2009.

International Career for Italy

Vieri played for the Italian national team from 1997 to 2005, scoring 23 goals in 49 matches. He is known as one of Italy's best pure strikers.

He played in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. In these tournaments, he scored a total of nine goals in nine games. This makes him one of Italy's highest World Cup goal scorers, tied with legends like Roberto Baggio and Paolo Rossi.

Vieri scored his first international goal for Italy on 29 March 1997. At the 1998 World Cup in France, he scored five goals, forming a strong partnership with Roberto Baggio. He scored against Chile, Cameroon (twice), Austria, and Norway.

He missed the Euro 2000 tournament due to an injury.

In the 2002 World Cup, Vieri continued his great goal-scoring form, netting four goals in four games. He scored two goals against Ecuador and one against Croatia. In the match against co-hosts South Korea, he scored Italy's only goal with a powerful header.

He also played in Euro 2004, but Italy was eliminated early. During this tournament, he spoke out against critics in the Italian press. He missed the 2006 World Cup due to another knee injury. Italy went on to win that World Cup, so he unfortunately missed out on a winner's medal.

Style of Play

Christian Vieri was a powerful and skilled striker. He was known for his ability to score many goals. People often called him "Il Toro" (meaning "The Bull") because of his strong physical presence and direct way of playing.

He was very good at scoring with his left foot, but he could also score with his right foot and his head. He was especially good at heading the ball and is one of the top scorers of headed goals in Italian league history. Vieri was also good at finding open spaces and getting past defenders. He could hold the ball up to help his teammates and had a powerful shot from both close range and far away.

Life After Football

After retiring from football, Christian Vieri has been involved in several projects. He has his own fashion label called Sweet Years, which he runs with his friend and former teammate Paolo Maldini. They also own restaurants in Milan.

Vieri has also presented a footvolley cup called the Bobo summer cup. In 2017, he started a relationship with Costanza Caracciolo, and they got married in 2019. They have two daughters.

Vieri has also worked as a football expert for TV. He started a popular weekly podcast called Bobo TV with other former teammates like Antonio Cassano and Daniele Adani.

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club	Season	League			National cup		Continental		Other		Total
Club	Season	Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Torino	1991–92	Serie A	6	1	1	1	0	0	–		7	2
	1992–93	Serie A	1	0	1	0	0	0	–		2	0
	Total		7	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	9	2
Pisa	1992–93	Serie B	18	2	0	0	–		–		18	2
Ravenna	1993–94	Serie B	32	12	0	0	–		–		32	12
Venezia	1994–95	Serie B	29	11	0	0	–		–		29	11
Atalanta	1995–96	Serie A	19	7	2	2	–		–		21	9
Juventus	1996–97	Serie A	23	8	5	1	8	4	1	1	37	14
Atlético Madrid	1997–98	La Liga	24	24	1	0	7	5	–		32	29
Lazio	1998–99	Serie A	22	12	2	1	4	1	0	0	28	14
Inter Milan	1999–2000	Serie A	19	13	5	5	–		1	0	25	18
	2000–01	Serie A	27	18	0	0	5	1	0	0	32	19
	2001–02	Serie A	25	22	1	0	2	3	–		28	25
	2002–03	Serie A	23	24	0	0	14	3	–		37	27
	2003–04	Serie A	22	13	1	0	9	4	–		32	17
	2004–05	Serie A	27	13	3	3	6	1	–		36	17
	Total		143	103	10	8	36	12	1	0	190	123
AC Milan	2005–06	Serie A	8	1	1	1	5	0	–		14	2
Monaco	2005–06	Ligue 1	7	3	0	0	2	1	2	1	11	5
Atalanta	2006–07	Serie A	7	2	0	0	–		–		7	2
Fiorentina	2007–08	Serie A	26	6	1	0	12	3	–		39	9
Atalanta	2008–09	Serie A	9	2	0	0	–		–		9	2
Career total			374	194	24	14	74	26	4	2	476	236

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Italy	1997	7	2
	1998	7	6
	1999	5	2
	2000	1	0
	2001	2	0
	2002	8	5
	2003	6	4
	2004	7	3
	2005	6	1
Total		49	23

Scores and results list Italy's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Vieri goal.

List of international goals scored by Christian Vieri
No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	29 March 1997	Stadio Nereo Rocco, Trieste, Italy	Moldova	2–0	3–0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier
2	29 October 1997	Dynamo Stadium, Moscow, Russia	Russia	1–0	1–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier
3	11 June 1998	Parc Lescure, Bordeaux, France	Chile	1–0	2–2	1998 FIFA World Cup
4	17 June 1998	Stade de la Mosson, Montpellier, France	Cameroon	2–0	3–0	1998 FIFA World Cup
5	17 June 1998	Stade de la Mosson, Montpellier, France	Cameroon	3–0	3–0	1998 FIFA World Cup
6	23 June 1998	Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France	Austria	1–0	2–1	1998 FIFA World Cup
7	27 June 1998	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille, France	Norway	1–0	1–0	1998 FIFA World Cup
8	5 September 1998	Anfield, Liverpool, England	Wales	2–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifier
9	5 June 1999	Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna, Italy	Wales	1–0	4–0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifier
10	8 September 1999	Stadio San Paolo, Naples, Italy	Denmark	2–0	2–3	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifier
11	3 June 2002	Sapporo Dome, Sapporo, Japan	Ecuador	1–0	2–0	2002 FIFA World Cup
12	3 June 2002	Sapporo Dome, Sapporo, Japan	Ecuador	2–0	2–0	2002 FIFA World Cup
13	8 June 2002	Kashima Soccer Stadium, Kashima, Japan	Croatia	1–0	1–2	2002 FIFA World Cup
14	18 June 2002	Daejeon World Cup Stadium, Daejeon, South Korea	South Korea	1–0	1–2	2002 FIFA World Cup
15	20 November 2002	Stadio Adriatico, Pescara, Italy	Turkey	1–1	1–1	Friendly
16	29 March 2003	Stadio Renzo Barbera, Palermo, Italy	Finland	1–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier
17	29 March 2003	Stadio Renzo Barbera, Palermo, Italy	Finland	2–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier
18	20 August 2003	Gottlieb Daimler Stadion, Stuttgart, Germany	Germany	1–0	1–0	Friendly
19	11 October 2003	Stadio Oreste Granillo, Reggio Calabria, Italy	Azerbaijan	1–0	4–0	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier
20	18 February 2004	Stadio Renzo Barbera, Palermo, Italy	Czech Republic	1–0	2–2	Friendly
21	31 March 2004	Estádio Municipal de Braga, Braga, Portugal	1–1	2–1	Friendly
22	28 April 2004	Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa, Italy	Spain	1–1	1–1	Friendly
23	12 October 2005	Stadio Via del Mare, Lecce, Italy	Moldova	1–0	2–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier