“Running after a ball, scoring goals, celebrating and suffering in a stadium has been my whole life.”
It will be no more for Luca Toni, whose final appearance was decorated by an atypical, eye-catching ‘Panenka’ penalty, which helped Verona end Juventus’s 26-match unbeaten run in the league. FIFA.comlooks at the stats behind an admirable career.
100
per cent of Toni’s 16 Italy goals were scored from inside the box. Seven were headers, three were volleys, and ten came from left-wing crosses. 56 per cent of his Azzurri goals came against three teams: Belarus, Scotland and Ukraine, the latter of whom he scored twice against to inspire Italy into the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ semi-finals.
53.5
feet is the distance from which Toni spectacularly headed home his first Juventus goal against Cagliari in February 2011. By a matter on inches, however, it failed to halt his run without scoring outside the penalty area in Serie A, which he eventually for Verona against Udinese after almost four years in 2014.
48
goals is what makes Toni Verona’s all-time leading marksman in Serie A – something he achieved in just three seasons. His closest rival, Emiliano Mascetti, managed 35 goals during nine campaigns in the Italian elite. Toni’s 20 and 22-goal returns in his first two terms at Verona places him first and second on the club’s list of top scorers in a Serie A season – their previous highest was 15 goals.
47
years after Inter Milan’s Antonio Angelillo became the last player to break the 30-goal barrier in a Serie A season, Fiorentina’s Toni repeated the feat in 2005/06. The only other men to score over 30 goals in an Italian top-flight campaign since World War II are Gunnar Nordahl, who managed it in back-to-back seasons in the mid-20th century, and Gonzalo Higuain this term. Toni’s 31 goals in 38 games also made him the first Italian to win the European Golden Shoe – 38 years after it was first awarded to Benfica’s Eusebio.
39
goals in 46 matches is what Toni managed in his first campaign at Bayern Munich in 2007/08. He finished it as the leading marksman in both the UEFA Cup and the Bundesliga, in which his 24 goals saw him surpass Giovane Elber and Roy Makaay and become the Bavarian giants’ highest-scoring foreigner in a league season.
38
was the age at which Toni became the oldest man to win the Capocannoniere in 2014/15. The Verona striker hit 22 goals in 38 games to share the award with Inter Milan’s Mauro Icardi and duly outrank Dario Hubner, who was 35 when he finished as Serie A’s joint-leading marksman in his first season for Piacenza in 2001/02. Ironically, when Brescia sold Hubner to Piacenza, they replaced him with Toni.
34
was the position the Eurodance track Numero Uno (Luca Toni) reached in the German music charts in early 2009, behind the likes of Hot n Cold by Katy Perry, Polarkreis 18’s Allein Allein and So What by Pink. The tribute to the Bayern man was released by comedian and impersonator Matthias Knop.
27
was the relatively old age at which the burly striker made his international debut in August 2004. Alessandro Del Piero, the man who came on for him in Italy’s first game at Germany 2006, was 20 when he made his, while Toni’s opposite number in the Ghana squad, Derek Boateng, was just 18.
8
is the number of Serie A clubs Toni scored for – a figure bettered only by Nicola Amoruso, who netted for nine.
6
transfers in five years is what Toni made at the start of his career. After leaving his first employers Modena in 1996, Toni featured at Empoli, Atletico Roma, Fiorenzuola, Treviso and Vicenza, before going to play alongside Pep Guardiola and Roberto Baggio at Brescia. Over the course of his 22-year career Toni played for 15 clubs.