I am having to clarify to Christian Vieri that regardless of us being in London and only some miles from Lord’s, organising a recreation of cricket with Sir Ian Botham might be going to be a bit tough. I simply don’t have that kind of pulling energy, but in addition as a result of the previous Ashes legend is in Australia and a bit banged up after falling into crocodile-filled waters on a fishing journey.
The factor is, Vieri – the previous striker who at one time turned the costliest footballer on the earth when he moved to Internazionale in 1999 for about £30m – doesn’t identical to cricket, he loves it, having spent most of his childhood in Australia.
As a legend of Serie A and the Azzurri – no Italian has extra World Cup targets than Vieri’s 9 – the 51-year-old talks usually about his extraordinary soccer profession when working as a pundit in Italy however not often of the opposite sport that dominated his childhood in Sydney’s western suburbs.
Vieri comes alive on the point out of West Indies and after I inform him that Botham additionally performed skilled soccer. “I might go to the Sydney Cricket Floor and noticed Australia play the West Indies,” remembers Vieri, who speaks in good English with a robust Australian accent, simply as he did as a younger man. “The West Indies are the most effective cricket crew ever. Ever. In these days Viv Richards, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Clive Lloyd – all these guys – they have been simply phenomenal. Just like the 20 finest gamers on the earth, they have been at all times West Indians, like Michael Holding, like Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes.
“Allan Border was my favorite Australian participant,” continues Vieri. “He’s the boss of the boss. He gave me his cricket bat. However my No 1s are Viv Richards and Botham. Superb, man. Perhaps he was the most effective all-round cricketer that ever performed the sport.” What it’s about West Indies that he loves a lot? “Similar to the West Indies, you’ve received to be assured in life if you wish to go someplace. Everybody’s going to place you down if you need to do one thing. So that you’ve simply received to simply go for it 100%.”
Vieri, nicknamed Bobo, has by no means struggled for confidence, both in entrance of aim or off the pitch. However after taking part in for Marconi Stallions – a outstanding Sydney crew that additionally nurtured Harry Kewell, Mat Ryan, Mark Schwarzer, Brett Emerton, Paul Okon and Steve Corica – making the transfer from Australia to Italy at 14 was a tough and unsure resolution. Helped by his household, Vieri hit the bottom working at non-league Santa Lucia, earlier than being noticed by Prato after which the Italian giants Torino.
“My grandfather was the one one which believed in me,” says Vieri. “And the primary recreation that I performed, after I scored 4 targets, my grandfather mentioned to my auntie: ‘If we hold him right here, he’s going to develop into among the finest strikers on the earth.’”
Vieri’s grandfather provided him a reward of 5,000 lira for each aim. “After three video games, we went to at least one. As a result of the primary two video games, I scored like seven targets, So he mentioned: ‘Hear, I can’t sustain with this.’”However Vieri’s journey to changing into one of many world’s finest was not simple, with an inconsistent three years in Serie B within the early 90s for 3 totally different golf equipment, solely returning to Serie A in 1995 with Atalanta aged 22. Initially there have been few indicators of the participant he would develop into however two years on Vieri received his first and solely Scudetto with Juventus, and began the 1997 Champions League ultimate towards Borussia Dortmund, having scored in each the quarter- and semi-finals.
Alongside Zinedine Zidane and Alessandro Del Piero and underneath Marcello Lippi, Vieri discovered rather a lot regardless of falling out together with his supervisor, nearly coming to blows within the dressing room throughout a league recreation.
“I used to be on the bench and [Alen] Boksic received injured,” says Vieri. “So I performed like 10 minutes within the first half. Then Lippi says one thing to me. I mentioned: ‘However I simply performed 5 minutes, what would you like from me?’ I used to be nervous I wasn’t taking part in so I answered again. He got here at me. We had a battle, then he took me off. Not fairly a bodily battle, as one other participant stopped us. These items occur. Meaning you care. Zidane and I have been so totally different,” he continues.
“He doesn’t speak a lot. He’s a silent man. And so when it was the winter I might take him residence to my home and eat with my mum’s pals. However I might at all times mess around with him. We at all times had an incredible relationship. I like to choose on everybody, you realize. So he would come for dinner, my mum would communicate in French and he would take pleasure in that.”
Vieri stayed at Juventus for a single season earlier than Atlético Madrid provided to just about double his wage, and it was in Spain the place Vieri actually turned elite, scoring 24 targets in as many La Liga video games to win the 1997-98 Pichichi award, regardless of Atlético ending sixth. “At Atlético they have been all relaxed. Whenever you fill your head with stress, it’s all bullshit. Throughout the pre-season, I used to be working like loopy. Everybody’s going: ‘The place are you going? Chill out, take it simple.’”
Vieri even received a Ferrari 550 Maranello after betting Atlético’s president, Jesús Gil, he would rating three targets in a European recreation towards Paok, audaciously sealing his hat-trick from the byline. “I left the Ferrari in Spain,” says Vieri. “It was after I went to Lazio. After two months Atlético referred to as me and mentioned: ‘Hear, the Ferrari’s arrived.’ I mentioned: ‘I can’t take it.’”
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At Lazio, Vieri scored an outrageous looping header within the 1998-99 Cup Winners’ Cup ultimate towards Mallorca at Villa Park and shone alongside Marcelo Salas however Lazio misplaced the title on the ultimate day as Milan pipped them to the Scudetto by a degree. Nonetheless, he loved his time underneath Sven-Göran Eriksson – “at all times calm, relaxed, the other of me” – and within the Italian capital. “I might generally go round Rome on my motorcycle, so Salas purchased a Harley-Davidson, however he slammed it right into a lamp-post,” says Vieri. The Chilean needed to have seven stitches in his shin, however “no one discovered”.
Vieri’s world-record departure from Lazio to Inter in 1999 despatched shockwaves by way of world soccer, a lot in order that the Vatican denounced the Catholic striker’s payment as “an offence towards poor individuals”, whereas a Lazio fan, Elio Di Cristofalo, included Vieri in a suicide notice. “Lazio have bought Vieri. All that cash for a footballer, however cash will not be every thing in life,” it learn.
Inter, although, is the place he turned a membership legend with 123 targets in 190 video games – solely 9 gamers have scored extra for the Nerazzurri. Vieri is speaking at an occasion to promote Serie A’s streaming take care of the OneFootball app, and among the many 600 followers in attendance in Shoreditch, lots of the shirts are Inter, remarkably the one membership of his 18-year profession the place he stayed for longer than a season.
“In Inter, we have been an wonderful crew,” smiles Vieri. “After I arrived I noticed Ronaldo and mentioned: ‘I got here right here to play with you!’ He simply began laughing. We had phenomenal gamers. We may have received every thing. However of all these gamers that you just performed up entrance with Ronaldo, Adriano, [Hernán] Crespo, [Álvaro] Recoba, Roberto Baggio, it was fucking superior.”
In the end, accidents to others and dangerous fortune meant Vieri received just one Coppa Italia throughout that six-year interval. Vieri performed simply 667 minutes with Ronaldo on the pitch (though they shared 18 targets in 11 matches in that point) earlier than the Brazilian’s switch to Actual Madrid in 2002, a case of what may have been.
Additional spells at Milan, Monaco, Atalanta, Sampdoria and Fiorentina ensued regardless of a critical knee damage simply earlier than the 2006 World Cup. However it’s within the blue of Inter and Italy that Vieri will probably be remembered, his old style mix of pace, energy, swagger and alpha power akin to Gigi Riva stood out in an age of in any other case dainty Italian forwards: Del Piero, Baggio, Pippo Inzaghi, Francesco Totti.
That power lives on in his present ventures, which vary from working a YouTube Channel, Bobo TV, to a beer firm, a padel event, a style line with Paolo Maldini and eating places.
“I’m the happiest now I’ve ever been,” beams Bobo. “I’ve a spouse and two daughters. Six and 4 years outdated. They’re my two finest issues in my life.”
We’ll should attempt to make time for that recreation of cricket.
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