If he’s crap, how bad am I? Photograph: Paolo Lazzeroni/AP
Brother of fellow footballer Simone, Pippo got his Serie A debut when he transferred to Parma in 1995, but scored only twice in 15 matches. He moved on to Atalanta the following season, finishing as the Capocannoniere (Serie A’s top scorer) with 24 goals. However, he was soon on the move once again (his seventh team in seven seasons), this time to Juventus. It was here that he formed a formidable attacking triumvirate with Alex Del Piero and Zinédine Zidane, which would last fully four seasons. Juventus won the Scudetto in the 1997-98 season, but lost 1-0 in the Champions League final to Real Madrid.
In spite of a decent tally of 57 goals in 120 games for the Bianconeri, Inzaghi was ditched in favor of David Trézéguet, being bought by Milan for the 2001-02 campaign by Turk berk Fatih Terim, where he was eventually able to forge a strong partnership with Andriy Shevchenko, racking up an impressive haul of medals with the Rossoneri, among them the 2002-03 Champions League.
Inzaghi’s career has been plagued by persistent knee injuries and jokes about the number of times he is given offside, but in May, 2007, in the 2007 Champions League final in Athens, he scored Milan’s winner in their 2-1 victory over Liverpool in a rematch of the 2005 final. Yes indeed, that’s one hell of a way to silence your critics. He declared after the match:
‘It’s a dream since I was a child to score twice in the final, and the ones I scored yesterday evening were the most important in my life. It was an unforgettable game. It’s something that will stay with me all my life and two goals in the final speaks for itself.’
Despite his fine achievments, many have been quick to disparage the man. No less than Johan Cruyff said of him: ‘Look, actually he can’t play football at all. He’s just always in the right position.’ That sounds like a right load of bollocks, but Cruyff isn’t alone in his feint praise of Inzaghi, Sir Alex Ferguson famously saying the striker ‘was born in an offside position.’ On 8th March, Inzaghi scored his first hat-trick against Atalanta when they won by 3-0 home at San Siro and last weekend he scored his 300th career goal in the 5-1 thrashing of Siena.
300 up
This man is bloody great, OK!
I was born on the same day as Inzaghi so have always had something of a soft spot for the man, but I’ve never accepted the arguments that Inzaghi isn’t a good footballer. He has incredible touch and control, among the best positional sense I’ve ever seen (ask Cruyff), is clinical under pressure and is an incredible header of the ball. If those aren’t the skills that top strikers require then I don’t know what is. The man is part of a dying breed who ‘just score goals’ and the more’s the pity.
