1999 CHRISTIAN VIERI
£ 32M > LAZIO > INTER
Blink and you’d miss Vieri. Not just because the burly striker made beating the offside trap an art form, either – he just couldn’t stay at one team for longer than a season.
‘ Bobo’ was an outsider from the very start. A Bologna- born boy brought up in Australia, he flitted from city to city in the ’ 90s, scoring goals wherever he went. But while numerous nomads struggle to impress without laying down roots, Vieri’s allure lingered. He became a cult figure – mostly across his home nation via the likes of Pisa, Juventus and Lazio – and always left his audience craving a bit more.
“I want him and him alone,” former Atletico Madrid boss Raddy Antic famously declared while courting the striker in 1997. “Vieri dead is better than any other attacker alive.”
The Italy frontman dazzled at eight clubs before the age of 26. But when Marcello Lippi – Vieri’s manager when they won the league at Juve – joined Inter in 1999 and demanded that chairman Massimo Moratti sign his old charge as Ronaldo’s sidekick, the Nerazzurri were forced to dig deep. Inter had just come eighth, but Vieri didn’t take much convincing.
“That’s my weak point – I went to Inter to play with him,” Vieri said of Ronaldo, who had moved to Inter for a record £ 19.5m fee of his own two years earlier. He even posed for photos upon the Italian’s arrival, with Vieri only too happy to share the limelight next to his new Brazilian buddy. In return, Vieri told of how Ronaldo would give him penalties just to enhance his Golden Boot chances. They appeared to have a beautiful friendship off the pitch, but it didn’t blossom enough on it.
“He’s linked to my biggest regret at Inter,” Lippi lamented of Vieri. “Both in their prime, [ 23 and] 26 years old, something to scream about. With various injuries, however, they only played together three times [ for me].”
Vieri and Ronaldo had struck a combined 287 career club goals before their maiden campaign as a pair, yet Inter finished fourth in Serie A under Lippi before bombing out of Champions League qualifying to Helsingborg – failing to even score across two legs. The duo would never win a Serie A title together... or come remotely close.
Vieri bagged only the Coppa Italia in 2005, his swansong after six seasons with Inter. Some 123 goals later, though, you might say that they got their money’s worth. Who knew staying for more than a year might pay off?