Filippo Inzaghi was born on 9 August 1973 in Piacenza. After coming through the youth ranks of his hometown club, he started to demonstrate his extraordinary goalscoring abilities with Leffe, Verona and Piacenza once more before making his Serie A debut with Parma on 27 August 1995. The following season was when he really established himself in Italy’s top tier as he finished top of the goalscoring charts on 24 goals while playing for Atalanta. He then joined Juventus, going on to win a Scudetto title and a Supercoppa italiana. A move to Milan followed, with Inzaghi remaining at the Rossoneri for eleven seasons and winning almost everything on offer: the Champions League (x2), UEFA Super Cup (x2), FIFA Club World Cup (x1), Scudetto (x2), Coppa Italia (x1) and Supercoppa italiana (x2).

As regards the National Team, after triumphing at the Under-21 European Championship in 1994, he made his debut for the senior side on 8 June 1997 in a prestigious friendly between Italy and Brazil, back when Cesare Maldini was the Azzurri’s Head Coach. He was involved in France 98 and provided an assist for Roberto Baggio for Italy’s second goal against Austria. The striker had to wait a few more months before getting on the scoresheet for his country for the first time: a brace in a friendly against Spain on 18 November of the same year got him off the mark. At EURO 2000, he netted twice: the winning penalty against Turkey and a goal in Italy’s quarter-final showdown against Romania. He also took part in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, and he finished as the Azzurri’s top goalscorer during qualifying for the 2004 European Championship. Most notably, he was in the squad for the 2006 World Cup, going on to become a World Champion at the age of 33. Inzaghi played 57 times for the National Team and scored 25 goals, a number which sees him come in at sixth in Italy’s all-time top goalscorer list, level with Adolfo Baloncieri and Alessandro Altobelli.