Luca Toni

If there is one thing that Luca Toni could never be described as being it is an overnight success, he has earned his glory the hard way, coming up from the third tier of Italian football to be the top striker in Serie A in 2006 and World Cup winner with Italy. If ever there was an award for sheer perseverance in the face of adversity the big Italian would surely walk away with the prize. Luca began his career in 1994/5 with Serie C club Modena, he only played 7 games in his first season but hinted at his potential with a couple of goals. The following season he made 25 league appearances though only managed 5 goals, a transfer to Empoli of Serie B followed in the 1996/7 season but he only played 3 league matches, scoring 1 goal for the club before in 1997/8 he was back down in the third tier of Italian football again, this time with Fiorenzuola, he managed only 2 goals in 25 matches and Toni seemed destined for a career as a journeyman in the lower reaches of Italian football. However in 1998/99 he moved to

Lodigiani, again of Serie C, however he enjoyed much better fortune scoring 15 goals in 31 league matches, this was enough to give him a move to Serie B with Treviso in 1999/00, where in his only season at the club he scored 15 goals in 35 matches which earned him a move to Serie A with Vicenza in 2000/1 where he managed a perfectly reasonable return of 9 goals in 31 matches but in 2001/2 Brescia became his seventh club and his first season he enjoyed a fine return of 13 goals in 28 league matches but the next season after scoring only 2 goals in 16 matches he was back in Serie B, this time with Palermo, a less enthusiastic player may have been content to play out the remainder of his career in Serie B but Toni took the league by storm scoring 30 goals and finishing as the league's top scorer also helping Palermo to the Serie B title in the process.

Toni's return to Serie A was a spectacular success as he scored 20 goals in 35 league appearances which helped Palermo to a sixth place finish and UEFA Cup qualification. Fiorentina were impressed enough with Toni to purchase him for the 2005/6 season and their judgement was vindicated completely as he became Serie A's top scorer with 31 goals in 38 matches, the first player in almost fifty years to score 30 goals in Serie A, he continued his fine form into the 2006/7 season.

As Toni's club career has gained momentum, naturally international recognition has followed. He made his debut for the Azzuri in August 2004 against Iceland and then scored his first international goal a month later against Norway on his home ground at Palermo in a World Cup qualifier. In 2005 he got his first international hat-trick in a 4-1 victory against Belarus in Minsk and was established as Marcello Lippi's number one striker for the 2006 World Cup, he scored 2 goals, both coming in the 3-0 win against Ukraine in the quarter final and though he didn't score in either the semi-final or final he was a constant threat and a vital part of Italy's World Cup winning side, how unlikely was that when Toni was struggling in the third division of Italian football.