Fabrizio Ravanelli is part of a cohort of great Italian football players who managed to win the UEFA Champions League. During his career, he had to change many clubs, because by his nature he was a leader on the field and outside the field who did not like to become part of the team.
Youth
The Juventus legend was born in the Italian city of Perugia on December 11, 1968. His father was a fan of a local club, so he supported his son’s desire to play football. Of course, in childhood and youth, Fabrizio did not clearly 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 put more emphasis on football. It was in 1983 that he was invited to the youth composition of Perugia.
The professional growth of the player was so noticeable that the coaches of the main team, which then played in Serie C, in 1986 take the player to themselves. As part of his native club, he spent three seasons. He played very productively, but this did not help his team to improve in class. For 90 matches, the young striker scored 41 goals.
Fabrizio Ravanelli: from Perugia to Juventus
Ravanelli felt that he could successfully play at a higher level than series C. And it seems that the opportunity to try his hand at series B appeared in 1989. He was invited to join the club "Avellino." Silver Fox played 7 games for this team, and then an incident happened: Ravanelli was on loan in the C1 series (Casertano). This transition was rather unexpected, but it went to the footballer's benefit. For this club, the pupil of “Perugia” held 27 fights, in which he scored 12 goals.
The next step on the road to recognition was Regina, who played at the time of joining this team in the series of Ravanelli V. Fabrizio spent 66 matches in this team and scored 24 goals. If we talk about the season 1991/1992, which became the last in the “Silver Fox” in the “quagmire”, then in 32 matches he scored 8 goals. The number of games held speaks for itself - he was the main center forward of “Reggiana” and largely determined the team’s game.
Juventus buys Ravanelli
A brief biography of Fabrizio Ravanelli would be incomplete without a story about the period in the Turin Grand. From the very beginning of this player’s football career, it was clear that sooner or later he would be part of one of the giants. The path to success turned out to be rather thorny, because there were cases of faster jumps. Experts have noted the benefits of several seasons in the lower leagues for Ravanelli in that he ended up in Juventus as an absolutely mature player of a serious level. It is clear that in the first season he could not win the competition with the recognized leaders of Baggio and Meller. Coming mainly for a substitution, Ravanelli scores 5 goals in all tournaments. The first European victory was not long in coming - in 1993, “Bianconeri” win the UEFA Cup.
Fabrizio continues to gain experience, self-confidence, and gradually becomes a player in the main squad. The peak of this Italian's career falls on the board at Juventus Marcello Lippi. In the 1994/1995 season, Turinians, with the active assistance of the Fox, who scored many goals, won the Scudetto. Well, who doesn’t remember his ball from zero in the final of the Champions Cup against the goal of Ajax and Edwin van der Sarah? 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, Scottish Dundee. Well, he finished the player’s career in the same place where he started - in “Perugia”.
The extravagant image and character of Fabrizio
In the 1990s, Russian and Ukrainian spectators were not very spoiled by European football. Matches with Ravanelli, which were broadcast in Ukraine, became a real show. When in 1996, playing for the Italian national team, comparing the score in the match with Ukraine, it seemed that the gray-haired veteran seemed to score. And then he was only 28 years old. Gray hair is the natural color of his hair. Journalists distributed different versions about this:
- he is mortally ill, and the disease is associated with problems at the gene level;
- this hair color is inherited in this family.
In addition to the extravagant appearance, it is worth talking about the character of the player Fabrizio Ravanelli. The biography of a football 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 chosen, often neglected the interests of the team, which caused irritation. The player has repeatedly openly stated that he deserves more than playing for ... (a specific team was called).
Fabrizio Ravanelli is currently engaged in coaching.