Fabrizio Ravanelli - the legend of Italian football

Fabrizio Ravanelli is included in the cohort of great Italian players who managed to win the UEFA Champions League. During his career he had to change many clubs, because he was a character on the field and outside the field was a leader who did not like to become part of the team.

Youth

The legend of "Juventus" was born in the Italian city of Perugia on December 11, 1968. His father was a fan of the local club, so he supported his son's desire to play football. Of course, in his childhood and youth, Fabrizio clearly did not plan that football would be the main business of his life. At school our hero also had quite good successes, but from the age of 15 he decided to make a greater emphasis on football. It was in 1983 he was invited to the youth squad "Perugia".

The professional growth of the player was so noticeable that the coaches of the main team, which then played in the C series, in 1986, take the player to himself. As part of his native club, he spent three seasons. He played very effectively, but it did not help his team to improve in the class. For 90 matches, the young striker scored 41 goals at the opponents' goal.

Fabrizio Ravanelli: from Perugia to Juventus

Ravanelli felt that he could successfully play at a higher level than the C series. And it seems that the opportunity to try his hand at the B series appeared in 1989. He was invited to the ranks of the club "Avellino." For this team, "Silver Fox" spent 7 games, and then there was an incident: Ravanelli was on loan in the series C1 ("Casertano"). Quite unexpected was this transition, but he went footballer for good. For this club pupil "Perugia" had 27 fights in which he scored 12 goals.

The next step on the way to recognition was the "Reggiana", played at the time of the arrival of this team Ravanelli in the series V. Fabrizio spent in this team 66 matches and scored 24 goals. If we talk about the season of 1991/1992, which became the last in the "quagmire" for the "Silver Fox ", then he scored 8 goals in 32 matches. The number of games played speaks for itself - he was the main center forward of "Reggiana" and largely determined the game of the team.

"Juventus" buys Ravanelli

A brief biography of Fabrizio Ravanelli would be incomplete without a story about the period in the Turin grandee. From the very beginning of the football career of this player it was clear that sooner or later he would be in the composition of one of the grandees. The road to success turned out to be rather thorny, because there were also more rapid jumps. Specialists noted the benefit of several seasons in the lower leagues for Ravanelli that he got to Juventus as an absolutely formed player of a serious level. It is clear that in the first season he could not win the competition from the recognized leaders of Baggio and Möller. Going mainly to replace, Ravanelli scores in all tournaments 5 goals. The first European victory did not take long to wait - in 1993, "Bianconeri" win the UEFA Cup.

Fabrizio continues to gain experience, self-confidence, becomes gradually a player of the main line-up. The peak of the career of this Italian falls on the board in the "Juventus" Marcello Lippi. In the 1994/1995 season the Turinians, with the active assistance of the Fox, who scored many goals, win the Scudetto. But who does not remember his ball from the zero corner in the final of the Champions Cup at the gate of Ajax and Edwin van der Sar? It was already 1996 ...

Then Ravanelli leaves Turin. In his sports biography flashed clubs such as "Olympic" (Marseille), "Lazio" (Rome), English "Middlesbrough" and "Derby County", the Scottish "Dundee". Well, he finished his playing career in the same place where he started - in "Perugia".

Extravagant image and character of Fabrice

In the 1990s, the Russian and Ukrainian spectators were not very spoiled by European football. Matches involving Ravanelli, which were broadcast in Ukraine, became a real show. When he was in 1996, playing for the Italian national team, compared the score in the match with Ukraine, it seemed that the old-fashioned veteran was clogging. And then he was only 28 years old. Gray hair is the natural color of his hair. The journalists distributed different versions about this:

- he is mortally sick, and the disease is associated with problems at the level of genes;

- this color of hair is inherited in this family.

In addition to the extravagant appearance, it is worth talking about the character of the player Fabrizio Ravanelli. Biography of the player is very motley. The fact is that often the change of club registration was due to the fact that Ravanelli had conflicts with the leadership or the coaching staff. He considered himself elected, often neglected the interests of the team, which caused irritation. The player has more than once openly stated that he deserves more than playing for ... (called a specific team).

Now Fabrizio Ravanelli is engaged in coaching.