Christian Panucci was born in Savona on 12 April 1973. After coming through the youth ranks of Genoa, who he made his Serie A debut for in 1991/92, he moved to AC Milan at the age of 20. While with the Rossoneri, he won six trophies across three years. After becoming the first Italian player to wear the Real Madrid shirt, he went on to play for Inter, Chelsea, Monaco, Roma and Parma.

As for his international career, he became an Under-21 European Champion on two occasions in 1994 and 1996, with his senior debut coming on 7 September 1994, when Arrigo Sacchi’s Italy took on Slovenia away from home. When Giovanni Trapattoni was at the helm, Panucci took part in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan and the 2004 European Championship in Portugal. After a three-year spell away from the National Team, he returned to the Azzurri setup aged 34 in 2007. Roberto Donadoni then named him in his Euro 2008 squad in Austria and Switzerland.

He played as a starter during the tournament and scored the equalising goal as the Azzurri drew with Romania on 13 June. In doing so, he became the National Team’s oldest-ever goalscorer at the time (35 years, two months and one day), a record he held until Quagliarella found the net on 23 March 2019 (36 years and 54 days). In total, Panucci bagged four goals in 57 Azzurri appearances.