It's one of life's many wonderful indiosyncracies that some people just don't get the credit they deserve. We can certainly move the anology over to football, and any fan of any club can reel off names of players whom, they perceive, never receive the sort of praise and acclamation their efforts merit. More often than not these players take the form of diligent full-backs, marathon-men midfielders or selfless front-runners. Rarely do such accolades escape ridiculously prolific goalscorers.
Remembered, he certainly will be, but whether Christian Vieri will be remembered as one of the true modern greats is another matter. The case of the Italian-born Australian raised striker is a curious one; where sentiments attached to his name invariably focus on his nomadic club career and merciless quest for money, rather than his merciless goal scoring exploits.
Despite an inauspicious start to his career, and a injury plagued finale, in his prime, at the peak of his fitness, there was no more dynamic and devastating striker than Vieri. During that period, his goal scoring record was equalled by no man, hitting the back of the net with ferocious regularity, in all competitions, including at major international tournaments with the national team. Vieri was simply a goal machine, with a goals-to-game ration almost peerless in modern day Italian football. However, rarely does Vieri get mentioned amongst such luminaries as Ronaldo, Batistuta, Henry or Van Basten as one of the greatest forwards of our generation. But why? Analyse his record, and for a time 'Bobo' was as good as they come.
By the age of 26, Vieri had already been through the doors of ten professional clubs, following an almost ritual like format of moving on each pre-season having spent only one season with each employer. Before hitting the relative big-time with a move to Juventus, Vieri could already list the services of Prato, Torino, Pisa, Ravenna, Venezia and Atalanta on his C.V. From such humble beginnings did great things grow, and after linking up with Marcelo Lippi at the Stadio delle Alpi, Vieri embarked on a scoring spree lasting almost a decade, utilising every inch of his 6ft 3" frame to combined incredible strength with the grace and mobility of a dainty winger, all in an effort to unleash a left foot packed with power and panache.
The 1996/7 season saw Vieri arrive in Turin, largely to play understudy to Alen Boksic. despite this he managed to become joint top-scorer at the club with 8 Serie A goals, enough to persuade Atletico Madrid to take him to Spain. Acclimatising didn't take long; a now familiar one year stint at a club saw a hugely impressive return of 24 league goals in 24 games landing him the Pichichi trophy as Spain's top goalscorer. Following on from his season in the Spanish captal came the 1998 World Cup - not the Azzuri's finest hour - but still Vieri hit five goals, prompting a move to Sven goran Eriksson's upwardly mobile Lazio outfit.
Hitting another twelve league goals in only 22 games, Vieri almost shot the Biancocelesti to the Scudetto only to see them miss out on the final day, nevertheless, silverware was still brought back to the Olimpico in the form of the Cup-Winners Cup, with Vieri scoring in the final. Another summer prompted yet another move, this time Inter paid a then world record transfer fee of £30million to take Vieri to his nnth Italian club in little over ten seasons, yet the San Siro saw the best of Vieri's services, during an uncharacteristically long six season stay. Here, you could say Vieri found his niche and settled, or you could argue he'd ran out of clubs to play for, regardless, over the next 144 Serie A games he plundered an incredible 103 goals. The potentially unstoppable partnership with Ronaldo never materialised due to injuries to one party or the other, but that did not stop Vieri's personal goals quest. Thirteen in 19 games in his first season, 18 in 27 in his second, the 2001-02 season saw 22 goals come in just 25 games - an amazing record he somehow managed to beat the season after whilst scoring 24 goals in only 23 games. Catenaccio? Somebody should tell the big man.
After four seasons with the Nerazzuri, his record stood at a quite preposterous 94 appearances and 77 goals, in arguably the most difficult league in Europe to score in. It is this record that should have Vieri constantly mentioned in the same breath as the rest of the goalscoring greats, yet he rarely features. Criticism rather than credit more attributed.
Within the game Vieri is seen as a mercenary. Moving from club to club, wage increase after wage increase, collecting his cut of transfer fees and contractual clauses. His transfer from Lazio to Inter was described as an "offence to the poor" by the Vatican. Admired, but not endeared, Vieri cuts a lonely figure, a man who seems hard to love. His club hopping antics mean fans have never taken to him and championed his cause as one of the greats. Before he became loved he was on his way again, leaving behind memories but no emotion. Even at Inter the bond with the Interisti was not strong. He went through a spell of not celebrating goals in protest at criticism from the terrace, he was seen as a playboy - landing a string of beautiful girlfriends - aswell as opening bars, restaurants, launching fashion lines and even bringing out a brand of condom. After six years with Inter, the San Siro could be classed as a house and not a home. He launched a lawsuit against the club after President Moratti admitted the club had tapped Vieri's phone to keep tabs on him. His association with il Biscione ended when he accepted a reported £6million contract pay-off in 2005, before repaying the club by signing for rivals Milan almost immediately.
Herein lies the problem with Vieri. Managing to constantly alienate himself from almost all admiration. It is difficult to be loved when loathed, praise will not follow when opinion is so low, and friends so few. His on-field performances will forever be overshadowed by his off-field attitude, and as a result his goal scoring abilities will never be fully appreciated. Vieri's actions are synonymous with greed and glamour, two of the most gauling distinctions for the common football fan. Vieri is not alone in this field, but he is one of the most identifiable.
The perceptions about Vieri are ones still largely based on old fashioned footballing principles of loyalty and commitment, but his career path could be seen as the pre-cursor to a changing pattern of club and player loyalty in the modern era. Long gone are the days of young boys going from terrace to pitch, teams nowadays largely consist of players with little geographic or sentimental ties to their employers, and clubs are just as ruthless in their treatment of players as the players and agents are to clubs. The Carlos Tevez ownership situation shows that players are just a commodity, essentially owned by no-one, ruled by no-one. Changing employment laws and rights could vastly shape the face of football transfers in the future, and the career path of a Christian Vieri will certainly become more familiar than that of a Paolo Maldini.
Whether Vieri saw himself as some pioneer of player freedom is highly doubtful, what is more likely is that he will always be remembered for the frequency of his clubs just as much as the frequency of his goals. The great irony for Vieri, is that by the time his frequency of clubs becomes the norm, his frequency of goals will be forgotten.
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