Marco Di Vaio is an Italian football striker who currently plays for Montreal Impact of
Major League Soccer.
In his long career, Di Vaio has played for the likes of Lazio, Salernitana, Parma, Juventus,
Valencia, AS Monaco, Genoa and Bologna.
Club career Early career
Di Vaio started his career at his hometown club Lazio.
He made his Serie A debut on 20 November 1997 against Padova.
He then played for Serie B clubs such as Verona and Bari before moving to Salernitana in 1997.
Salernitana He was a revelation at Salernitana, leading
them to their second promotion to the Serie A in 1997–98 as the top scorer in Serie
B for that season.
Parma Despite Salernitana's relegation the following
season, Di Vaio remained in Serie A, after being purchased by Parma.
He scored an impressive number of goals for the Gialloblu and he went on to become the
2nd highest scorer of the league in his third season for the team.
Juventus Juventus won the race to sign him during the
following summer, by paying Parma €7million for the loan.
But Di Vaio never really reproduced the form he showed at Parma, mainly because of the
immense competition for a first-team places at Juventus.
Initially a loan signing, he was signed permanently in summer 2003 for €14 million.
During his stay with Juventus he managed to win one scudetto, and reached 2003 UEFA Champions
League Final.
Valencia Due to an early exit from the UEFA Champions
League 2003–04 and coupled with the arrival of new coach Fabio Capello, Juventus began
a restructuring of their first team squad.
As a result, Di Vaio and his striking partner Fabrizio Miccoli were soon frozen out.
Di Vaio moved to defending UEFA Cup and La Liga champions Valencia on a 5-year contract,
costing Valencia €10.5million, joining up with fellow countrymen, coach Claudio Ranieri
and new signing Bernardo Corradi.
Di Vaio partnered Corradi up front in 10 La Liga matches, creating a total of 4 goals.
He managed a mere eleven league goals during his spell in Spain.
His presence in the first team line-up of Valencia became restricted with the arrivals
of Patrick Kluivert and David Villa, along with the sacking of Ranieri.
New coach Quique Sánchez Flores preferred to use Miguel Ángel Angulo as Villa's strike
partner or utilised a 4–5–1 formation, with Villa as the lone frontman.
This restricted Di Vaio to only one league start during the 2005–06 season.
Monaco In January 2006, Di Vaio was loaned out to
Ligue 1 side AS Monaco with an option to make the deal permanent.
Along with Di Vaio, countryman Christian Vieri was also signed and partnered him for 7 French
league matches, yielding 3 goals all of which were scored by Vieri.
Initially an insurance signing for injured Javier Chevantón and to replace the departing
Emmanuel Adebayor, the Italian duo created opportunities for Chevantón to score goals
in the second half of the season.
In his second season Di Vaio became the 3rd choice striker behind new signings Jan Koller
and Jérémy Menez, restricting him to just six first team appearances.
Genoa
On 22 January 2007, after an unsuccessful spell in Ligue 1, Di Vaio surprisingly returned
to Italy by signing with Serie B club Genoa, a side strongly pushing for promotion, for
€1.8 million.
The club duly achieved promotion, but once in Serie A, the partnership of Marco Borriello
and Giuseppe Sculli was preferred, leaving Di Vaio to make only 9 appearances.
Bologna On 21 August 2008 it was confirmed that Di
Vaio had signed for Serie A side Bologna FC, recently promoted from Serie B.
This reunited with former Genoa team-mate Adaílton.
Di Vaio was a surprise star in the 2008–09 season, scoring an impressive 24 goals for
a mediocre Bologna side.
He finished the season as joint second top-scorer alongside Genoa C.F.C.
striker Diego Milito.
At the end of season Bologna signed him on free transfer.
In his period at Bologna, Di Vaio regained reputation as a key prolific striker, rapidly
becoming a fan favourite, as well as team captain and one of the reference players during
the two club takeovers in the 2010–11 season, ensuring himself a contract extension until
June 2013; following the announcement, Di Vaio also state his desire to spend the rest
of his footballing career as a Bologna player.
However, on 4 May 2012, Di Vaio confirmed that the 2011–12 season will be his last
with Bologna, and that he would be considering various options for his future.
Montreal Impact After lengthy negotiations, Montreal Impact
announced that Marco Di Vaio had signed as the Canadian club's first Designated Player.
Di Vaio made his Impact debut on June 27, 2012 against Toronto FC, and scored his first
goal a month later on July 28, 2012 against New York Red Bulls.
Marco scored his first goal of the 2014 season against Philadelphia Union on March 29, 2014.
After the MLS season ends in 2014, Di Vaio will retire.
International career Di Vaio played for Italy at Euro 2004.
He made his senior debut on 5 September 2001, in a friendly match against Freistan Boluka.
He received several call-ups from Marcello Lippi who had previously coached Di Vaio at
Juventus.
A loss of form whilst with Valencia, coupled with the emergence of Luca Toni and Alberto
Gilardino, led to Di Vaio losing his place with the national team.
Club statistics As of 29 September 2013
International statistics Honours
Salernitana Serie B 1: 1997–98
Parma Coppa Italia 1: 2001–02
Juventus Serie A 1: 2002–03
Supercoppa Italiana 1: 2003 UEFA Champions League Runner-Up 1: 2002 - 03
Valencia UEFA Super Cup 1: 2004
Montreal Canadian Championship 2: 2013, 2014
Individual Serie B Top Scorer: 1998
MLS Best XI: 2013 References
External links Official website
Marco Di Vaio French league stats at LFP.fr FIGC National Team Stats.
Archive Marco Di Vaio – FIFA competition record