The Italian Serie A has historically been the most romantic and cultured of football leagues. The league itself might not have the same level of competition, or be inhabited by the same sort of characters who once made it the most entertaining division around, but it’s getting back to that level once more.
But which legendary Serie A strikers should have opened themselves up to the test of playing in Spain’s La Liga? Which fearless forwards ought to have challenged themselves there to strengthen their legacies even further?
#5 Alessandro Del Piero
A great in his own right, Alessandro Del Piero spent 19 seasons with Juventus in the Serie A and became a club treasure along the way.
As well as guiding them to eight league titles, he was one of the few players who stuck by the team following the Calciopoli scandal which saw the club banished to the second tier, Serie B, as well as being shackled by a points deduction.
To earn promotion, Del Piero banged in 20 strikes and in the process saw his bond with the fans fortify magnificently.
Stylistically, he was a no.10 – a forward who could involve himself in the build-up play as well as being on the finishing end of great team moves. He produced all sorts of marvellous goals (almost 200 in the league and 290 in all for the Old Lady, in fact); bicycle kicks, tap-ins, curled free kicks and wonderful headers because the Serie A was his playground.
However, it would have been fantastic to see him grace the Spanish top tier in his pomp. Seeing him line out in El Clasico derbies or in Copa del Rey finals would have been a magnificent sight, and there can be little doubt he would have been a legend there, too – surprisingly, though, he was never linked to a concrete move in that direction.
#4 Filippo Inzaghi
Dubbed by Sir Alex Ferguson as someone who must have been ‘born offside’, Filippo Inzaghi made an impression on the greatest names in the game – plus, he was a considerable great himself.
When he looked at a Rorschach blot, he saw the offside flag, but every time he did he learned how to navigate a way around them. He flirted with the fringes of the game, lived on the edges of the laws and eked out space for himself there as a truly unconventional, yet successful marksman.
In all, he netted 370 league goals and thrived in a league that has traditionally favoured defensive frugality over offensive flair – but it was the way he did it, by maximising his chances and bulldozing through some staunch rearguards that really see him held in high regard by so many (though he is equally derided by others).
He stayed in Italy for his entire career, playing for AC Milan, Parma and Juventus, among others. The boot-shaped nation was his home, but it’s easy to imagine that he could have thrived magnificently in Spain.
An arguably less physically demanding game there, Inzaghi’s lithe frame and accurate eye for goal could have seen him soar equally as high in his prime – all we can do now is fantasize about how that move would have transpired.
#3 Andriy Shevchenko
Aside from his turbulent spell at Chelsea (and the subsequent loan move to AC Milan), Andriy Shevchenko was a true legend of the beautiful game.
In all, the Ukrainian hero bagged over 200 club goals, from his time at Dynamo Kyiv back in 1994 all the way up to the day he retired in 2012, incidentally, also at Kyiv.
Plus, he spent a profitable seven years at AC Milan where he scored 127 goals in 208 Serie A games. That's because Shevchenko was a special footballer who sprinkled magic on the game with the way he tirelessly poached goals inside the 18-yard box.
At the start of the millennium, Sheva was rumoured to be on the brink of a mega-money blockbuster move to Barcelona as the likes of Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta were also linked to a move from Italy to Spain, but the chequebook was never put to use to bring the striker aboard the Catalan club.
#2 Francesco Totti
Another wonderful no.10 to grace our list, Francesco Totti is the eternal man in the eternal city – and he has always provided us with entertainment, joy and pure drama.
That’s because Totti is a favourite among so many football fans, not just for his style, grace, panache and vivacity but for the way he has remained loyal to AS Roma for the entirety of his club career, helping them win five honours since joining them as a fresh-faced teenager in 1993.
With over 250 Serie A strikes to his name, he will retire as the second-highest all-time leading goalscorer in the competition’s history, behind Silvio Piola.
Real Madrid and Barcelona were once said to have been enormously interested in bringing Il Bimbo d’Oro on board back when he was 26 and at the peak of his powers, but the money they were offering him didn’t at all interest him (which says a great deal about how humble and proud he was to be representing Roma).
He could have been a La Liga legend, but the rapport he’s built with his fans means a hell of a lot more as a one-club star.
#1 Luca Toni
When you think of Luca Toni, one immediately thinks of that famous celebration – and goals, lots and lots of goals.
After all, at 37 years of age, he scored the most goals in the Serie A season when he was with Hellas Verona and also won the league’s golden boot with Fiorentina prior to that.
His sizeable frame and eye for goal made him a success in Germany with Bayern Munich as well, but he never plied his trade in Spain.
However, he was linked with a move to Malaga at 35 years of age after his spell with Emirati outfit Al Nasr turned out to be a failed one. It seems as if the Spanish club missed out on securing the services of a player who was still very much in his prime.
Toni was held to a harsher level of criticism than many others around him which was truly odd considering he had won the World Cup with Italy back in 2006 and was a proven goalscorer in a variety of leagues.
An adverse striker who proved himself time and again, he deserved an opportunity to make his mark on the Iberian peninsula, but considering how things eventually worked out for him at the end of his career, he probably won’t lose too much sleep over it today.
