Luca Toni was born on 26 May 1977 in Pavullo nel Frignano which is in the province of Modena. He developed at the Modena academy before making his Serie A debut in October 2000 for Vicenza in a 2-0 defeat away at AC Milan. Two weeks later, he scored his first goal in the top flight against Atalanta. After his time at Vicenza, he played for Brescia, Palermo, Fiorentina, Bayern Munich, Roma, Genoa, Juventus, Al-Nasr and Fiorentina again. From 2013, he enjoyed a successful spell with Hellas Verona. He didn’t win any top flight honours in Italy but was the top scorer in the 2005/6 season with Fiorentina when he scored 31 goals. In Germany, he won the 2007/8 Bundesliga as the top scorer in the league on 24 goals. He also won the Ligapokal in 2007 and DFB Pokal in 2008. In 2004, he was the top scorer in Serie B as his 30 goals helped fired Palermo to promotion. That brilliant season saw him earn an Italy call-up from Marcello Lippi and he made his debut on 18 August in a 2-0 friendly loss away at Iceland. His first Azzurri goal came a month later on 4 September in Palermo in his second appearance after he came on for Miccoli in the second half and he scored the winner to make it 2-1 in a 2006 World Cup qualifier. It was at that competition where Toni would be a key man as Lippi’s Azzurri went on to lift the trophy. ‘His’ game was the one on 30 June in Hamburg where he scored two in a 3-0 win over Ukraine. Toni also played at the 2008 European Championship and the 2009 Confederations Cup where he would make the last appearances of his international career. For Italy, Toni made 47 appearances and scored 16 goals.