Christian Vieri at 50: celebrating three of his greatest goals

The big striker was a hero for a generation who grew up watching Serie A in the 1990s. Happy birthday, Bobo

By Henry Bell for The Gentleman Ultra

Christian Vieri turns 50 today. He scored many wonderful hat-tricks, including one on his debut for Inter in 1999, so what better way to celebrate the big man than picking a tripletta of his three best goals.

For many Italian football fanatics of the Channel 4 generation, he sums up why we fell in love with the game. His physical presence, commitment and ability to bully defenders into submission places him in a lineage of great Italian No 9s such as Gigi Riva, while his ability to score long-range strikes and turn past defenders added a sprinkling of gold dust. He also excelled in an era when managers often played two strikers up front so memories of Vieri also evoke his partnerships with Marcelo Salas, Álvaro Recoba, Hernán Crespo and Roberto Baggio.

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