Top Scorers in Serie A - 1997-98

[giogaddi]

Mental that Totti had started banging them in way back then. What a footballer he was. Should he have left Roma for Madrid?

 

[BBBear]

Pretty sure Inter had Ronaldo, Vieri, Recoba and Baggio as striking options all at one time. And won nothing.

Inter won the old school UEFA cup with Ronaldo did they not ?

 

[AMC]

Inter won the old school UEFA cup with Ronaldo did they not ?

Yeah in 98, they beat Lazio 3-0 in the final.

 

[AMC]

Over the past 30 years, Italy and Spain are the only two leagues to have a genuine claim on being the best in the world.

When you look at that above list, the EPL has just never had that depth of pure quality. It's had some great players, sure. And is considered one of the best leagues, but it has never made that step to be the definitive best. Same with Germany. Great players, but it never had a roster of outstanding talent like that seen in Italy 90s or Spain 2000s onwards.

I’d say Italy was even quite a bit ahead of Spain, obviously Real and Barca had unbelievable sides and you had Valencia from the late 90s to about the mid 2000s and Sevilla in the mid 2000s and then Atlético and Sevilla again.

For Italy you had Juve, AC, Roma and Lazio all win the league, Inter lost out twice on the last day but won the UEFA Cup and had a squad littered with players, Parma winning trophies and Fiorentina also threatening, including imploding one season in the title race, and if you go back earlier you’ve Sampdoria in the early 90s winning the league and getting to the European Cup final and just before that Maradona’s Napoli.

Late 80s to mid 2000s Serie A was untouchable in my opinion.

 

[giogaddi]

Inter won the old school UEFA cup with Ronaldo did they not ?

Yeah, that was a year or two before Vieri joined. Pumped Lazio. Probably Ronaldo's best performance in an Inter shirt.

 

[Club Deck Pakora]

Gooaaaaallllllaccciiiiioooo! Fucking brilliant back in the day. Always remember Batistuta as well in the wee figures with the massive heads.

 

[Jonathan E]

I remember watching the Football Italia Saturday preview show and a feature on Oliver Bierhoff who, in his free time, was studying for a degree in economics.

Not your typical footballer.

 

[Bigbluebear]

All the more remarkable for Bierhoff is he played for Udinese that season.

 

[sw26]

Best league in the world at that point in time, when you look at the list of players there it isn’t even close.

By way of comparison, the EPL list for the same season:

Dion Dublin (Coventry), Chris Sutton (Blackburn), Michael Owen (Liverpool) - 18 goals
Dennis Bergkamp (Arsenal), Kevin Gallacher (Blackburn), Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Leeds) - 16 goals
Andy Cole (Man Utd), John Hartson (West Ham) - 15 goals
Darren Huckerby (Coventry) - 14 goals
Paulo Wanchope (Derby) - 13 goals

 

[Mearns Ranger]

I've mentioned this previously,but Italy produced an insane amount of talented number 10's [if that's how you'd describe them] during a period of 10/15 years. Baggio, Del Piero, Zola, Totti, Mancini. Without wishing to derail the thread you could have a good FF thread picking the best of that outstanding bunch.

Mentioned it many times myself mate.
Loads of Italians, but every team played with one.
In the same era, you had different styles of number 10 too, but just as a glimpse of some of the foreign names...
Gullit
Maradona
Matthaus
Rui Costa
Hagi
Savicevic
Boban
Pirlo (Italian I know)
Bergkamp
Ronaldo

It really was the greatest period of football there’s ever been!

 

[Mearns Ranger]

That was a mental season in serie A with Juve and Inter going head to head.

They had what was pretty much a title decider and it was live on C4.

Crazy game, but my clearest memory was Inter attacking and the linesman was not running along the touch line - he was running along the 18 yard box! I have never found footage to confirm this and none of my friends remember this. Am I making it up?

My memory of this game was Ronaldo being denied a stonewaller and Juve going up the other end and getting a soft penalty.
Ronaldo spoke after the game of the corruption from the ref!

 

[Mearns Ranger]

I've mentioned this previously,but Italy produced an insane amount of talented number 10's [if that's how you'd describe them] during a period of 10/15 years. Baggio, Del Piero, Zola, Totti, Mancini. Without wishing to derail the thread you could have a good FF thread picking the best of that outstanding bunch.

Oh and by the way, the answer to your question, or suggestion of the thread, is Baggio.

 

[bud_light]

Mentioned it many times myself mate.
Loads of Italians, but every team played with one.
In the same era, you had different styles of number 10 too, but just as a glimpse of some of the foreign names...
Gullit
Maradona
Matthaus
Rui Costa
Hagi
Savicevic
Boban
Pirlo (Italian I know)
Bergkamp
Ronaldo

It really was the greatest period of football there’s ever been!

Surprised that Hagi never played for one of the big Italian clubs

 

[AMC]

All the more remarkable for Bierhoff is he played for Udinese that season.

They must have been an attacking side just checked the season after and they had another striker Amoroso who went on to play for Parma who was Serie A top scorer that season.

 

[Mearns Ranger]

I’d say Italy was even quite a bit ahead of Spain, obviously Real and Barca had unbelievable sides and you had Valencia from the late 90s to about the mid 2000s and Sevilla in the mid 2000s and then Atlético and Sevilla again.

For Italy you had Juve, AC, Roma and Lazio all win the league, Inter lost out twice on the last day but won the UEFA Cup and had a squad littered with players, Parma winning trophies and Fiorentina also threatening, including imploding one season in the title race, and if you go back earlier you’ve Sampdoria in the early 90s winning the league and getting to the European Cup final and just before that Maradona’s Napoli.

Late 80s to mid 2000s Serie A was untouchable in my opinion.

Correct. The greatest period of football there ever was in my eyes, certainly in terms of the best players congregating in the one league. It was amazing, and for confirmation of Italy being way ahead of Spain at the time, Inter just decided they were taking Ronaldo from Barcelona and did. Imagine Inter going to Barca in the last 10 years and saying we're taking Messi? Or going to Real and saying we're taking Ronaldo?

 

[Paisleybear30]

I've mentioned this previously,but Italy produced an insane amount of talented number 10's [if that's how you'd describe them] during a period of 10/15 years. Baggio, Del Piero, Zola, Totti, Mancini. Without wishing to derail the thread you could have a good FF thread picking the best of that outstanding bunch.

The Italians actually have a name for it, they call it a Trequartista. Comes from the word/s for three quarters apparently but it's someone who plays that attacking mid role just off the striker

 

[Mearns Ranger]

The Italians actually have a name for it, they call it a Trequartista. Comes from the word/s for three quarters apparently but it's someone who plays that attacking mid role just off the striker

Not sure if he's still here, but we had a poster, I think his name was Wilso 10, and underneath his name was always "Trequartista"

 

[crmpicco]

Bierhoff used to run about Glasgow between scoring goals in Serie A

Is Bierhoff still on the go?

 

[Teddy Casablanca]

Is Bierhoff still on the go?

Haven't seen him for a few years.