EUROSCENE: At the moment, there is some egg on a number of British footballing faces. The man who put it there is AC Milan and Italy striker Filippo Inzaghi, whose hat-trick against Torino in a 6-0 win on Sunday brought his seasonal total to 15 goals, Champions League and Serie A combined.
Over the years, 29-year-old Inzaghi has been a source of wry amusement to me. On those infrequent international occasions (World Cups, European Championships, Champions League nights) when I have met British-based colleagues, Inzaghi was always the subject matter for heated debate.
Put simply, the English football world has never really fancied him. This has always slightly puzzled me, given his huge reputation in Italy not to mention his remarkable goalscoring record at just about every level of the Italian game.
Forty-two times capped Inzaghi, after all, has not only scored 15 goals for Italy but has also registered a seasonal tally of 13 for Leffe in the Third Division, 15 for Piacenza in the Second Division and 24 for Atalanta in Serie A. With respect to these clubs, no one ever accused Leffe, Piacenza or Atalanta of being world-class sides in which goals came easy.
That track record notwithstanding, English colleagues often suggested that "SuperPippo" was nothing more than a poacher and a "six-yard line merchant", with a marked penchant for taking a dive to boot.
That mainly English view of Inzaghi was officially sanctioned when Holland and former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam (ironically now with Lazio in Italy) wrote his infamous book over a year ago, pointing an accusatory finger at Inzaghi and suggesting that he did not always play by Marquess of Queensberry rules.
One wonders what Inzaghi's English critics make of his sensational seasonal start. In particular, were they watching the Champions League action when he scored another hat-trick in a 4-0 away win against Deportivo La Coruna two weeks ago as well as both Milan goals in a 2-1 away win against Bayern Munich one week later?
It is, of course, undeniable that Inzaghi is one of those opportunist strikers who lurks in and around the six-yard line, while at the same time moving so consistently on the edge of the offside trap that he regularly gets caught out. It is true as well that, at this early stage, the current AC Milan side looks exceptionally strong and one in which a player of his talents can be expected to score by the hatful.
IT COULD, however, be that the man who is the all-time leading Italian goalscorer in European club competition (42 so far) is simply a superb striker. Critics, usually English again, suggest that he is greedy and does not really play for the team. Yet, did not former England striker Jimmy Greaves himself once say that a great striker has to be greedy? Since his days with Leffe 10 years ago, 29-year-old Inzaghi has long since moved into the most aristocratic of Italian circles, playing for Juventus for four seasons prior to moving to AC Milan 15 months ago for a $40 million fee.
He himself has no doubts but that his move to Milan has signalled a definitive turning point in his career, saying recently: "Without doubt this is the best period in my career and for that I am grateful to Milan. I'd say I've arrived in the right club at the right moment".
The "right moment" sees Inzaghi in a Milan squad brimming with talent that includes recent purchases Alessandro Nesta, Clarence Seedorf and Rivaldo as well as established squad players such as captain Paolo Maldini, Andrei Shevchenko (currently injured), Andrea Pirlo, Dane Jon-Dahl Tomasson and Portuguese schemer Rui Costa.
The only cloud on Inzaghi's horizon this week concerns an injury to his left foot, which has stopped him training recently and which may rule him out of Italy's forthcoming European Championship games against Yugoslavia on Saturday and Wales the following Wednesday.
Even if he misses those appointments, however, Inzaghi still has some important international objectives in mind. "At Milan, we've sent out a signal loud and clear to the rest of Europe. Italian football wants to get back to playing the lead role in European club competitions," he said.
Inzaghi means business.
