Cristian Bucchi

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Cristian Bucchi
Personal information
Date of birth May 30, 1977 (age 29)
Place of birth    Rome, Italy
Height 1.86 m
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current club S.S.C. Napoli
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1995-96
1996-98
1998-99
1999-2000
2000-01
2001-02
2002
2003
2004
2004-05
2005-06
2006-		 Sambenedettese
Settempeda
Perugia
→ Vicenza
Perugia
→ Ternana
→ Catania
Cagliari
Ancona
Ascoli
Modena
Napoli		 28 (0)
58 (52)
27 (5)
30 (11)
10 (1)
27 (9)
13 (2)
10 (1)
12 (5)
41 (17)
41 (29)
21 (8)[1]   
National team2
1998-99 Italy U-21 3 (1)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of July 2006.
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of July 2006.
* Appearances (Goals)

Cristian Bucchi (born 30 May 1977 in Rome) is a professional Italian footballer. As of July 2006, he plays for S.S.C. Napoli.

Contents

[edit] Football career

[edit] Early career

Bucchi would start his career with Serie C2 outfit Sambenedettese in 1995 as an 18 year old. He made 28 appearances in his first proper season, although scored a blank goalwise.

The Serie C2 outfit released him at the end of the season, and took the decision to drop down a few divisions to the amateur regional leagues. From 1996-1998, he enjoyed a fine couple of years where he bagged a brilliant 52 goals in 58 games for Settempeda. The 21 year olds promising talent didn't go unnoticed and it showed as Serie A outfit Perugia took a very big gamble in some respects for a non-league striker. Soon after that, in a massive change of fortunes for the young forward, he was called up to the Italy national under-21 football team.

[edit] Perugia

After his big move to Serie A, he started straight away in his first season for the club as Perugia claimed a mid-table place in the 1998/99 season. He contributed with 5 league goals and it was a surprise he adapted so quickly, considering he was playing amateur football little over a year before. His second season didn't go so well after quite an impressive first season. He returned in 2000 after a successful loan spell with promoted Serie B side Vicenza, and was ready to start afresh. Coming back to the club and seeing the likes of Ahn Jung-Hwan & Fabrizio Miccoli ahead of him in pecking order, lead to a very disappointing second season for Bucchi, after scoring just once in 7 matches for Perugia.

[edit] Vicenza

In 1999/2000, Bucchi joined Vicenza on loan for a season, and scored 11 league goals, which helped his team lift the Serie B title, although they made a quick return to Serie B after failure to avoid relegation the following season.

[edit] Ternana

In 2001/02, Bucchi scored 9 goals for newly-promoted Serie B side Ternana, as the newboys stayed up in their first Serie B season of the 21st century.

[edit] Catania & Cagliari

In the summer of 2002, he was signed by ambitious newly-promoted Serie B Sicilan outfit, Catania. However, things didn't work out very well for Bucchi, after finding first-team opportunities hard to come by, with the likes of Czech forward Jaroslav Sedivec, Luis Oliveira & Nassim Mendil all above him in pecking order. He would go on to find the net just twice in thirteen appearances for the Sicilian side. After a very unsuccessful spell with the Sicilians. Much to Bucchi's satisfaction, he was allowed to leave in the winter and made the move to Cagliari in the winter of 2002/03. Once again, he would have to wait for his chance, although with the likes of Fabrizio Cammarata, David Suazo & Luigi Beghetto already the first choice strikers, Bucchi would only feature 10 times in his whole Sardinian career, scoring just once.

[edit] Ancona

Bucchi joined Serie A basement boys Ancona in second-half of the 2003/04 season, after a very disappointing half-season in Sardinia, in a part exchange deal which would see Roberto Maltagliati go the opposite way. He scored 5 goals in 12 matches, a very impressive statistic for some-one in his shoes. However once again and not for the first time in his career, his team suffered relegation, as this time round, Ancona set an all-time low in Serie A, amassing just 13 points all season long.

Bucchi signed by Ascoli in a co-ownership deal with Chievo in summer of 2004, although Ascoli would be the club he would play for.

[edit] Ascoli

In 2004/05, Bucchi scored 17 goals for Ascoli (incredibly, he scored a 1/3 of the teams Serie B goal total that season, of 51 goals) and just missed one match. He became team his clubs top goalscorer, just 3 goals short of Serie B topscorer Gionatha Spinesi, who plies his trade with Arezzo thus helping Ascoli to an impressive 4th placed finish and gain a place in the seasons play-offs.

Despite Ascoli's play-off defeat to Torino (A 3-1 loss on aggregate), Ascoli, in bizarre circumstances (only 1 of the 3 original promoted teams went up - Genoa demoted to Serie C1, with their involvement in the Serie B match-fixing scandal that season & Torino had to play Serie B football for the following season, due to financial difficulties), gained promotion to Serie A fot the first time in more than a decade.

In the summer of 2005, Ascoli sold their 50% share of Bucchi to Modena.

[edit] Modena

In 2005/06, Bucchi scored an incredible 29 goals for Modena and in fact, 1 goal shy of contributing exactly half of the teams league goal total (59 goals). Consequently, he became Serie B topscorer that season, just one goal away from levelling Serie B's all-time topscorer, in current Fiorentina & Italian international striker Luca Toni, bagging 30 goals in 2003/04 for then-champions, Palermo. Bucchi's contribution would vastly help lead Modena to a play-off place, and scored one goal in the away leg against Mantova. Modena in the end lost out to Mantova, although the result on aggregate was 1-1. This meant that both sides' final league position's would come into the equation (Mantova finished higher than Modena in final league table, meaning Mantova would progress to the final).

During the 2006 January transfer window, rumours had linked the former Vicenza hitman to SL Benfica. [1]. After a year with Modena, he was sold to newly-promoted, and ambitious Napoli.

[edit] International recognition

For Italy, he has only represented his country at Under-21 level. During his time in the team (1998-1999), he collected 3 U-21 caps, scoring 1 goal.


[edit] Trivia

Bucchi is very good friends with Inter defender Marco Materazzi. They met when they both played for Perugia.

[edit] Clubs

[edit] Honours & Awards

  • 3 Italy Under 21 caps\1 goal
  • 1 Promotion to Serie A as Champions: 2000 (Vicenza)
  • 1 Promotion to Serie A as Runners-up: 2005 (Ascoli)
  • 2005/06 Serie B Top Goalscorer: 29 goals (Modena)

[edit] References

  1. ^ CalcioNapoliNews.it
S.S.C. Napoli - Current Squad

1 Iezzo | 2 Grava | 3 Montesanto | 4 Montervino | 5 Gatti | 6 Maldonado | 7 Trotta | 8 Inácio Piá | 9 Sosa | 11 Calaiò | 12 Del Giudice | 14 Garics | 17 Capparella | 18 Bogliacino | 19 Savini | 20 De Zerbi | 21 Amodio | 22 Gianello | 23 Giubilato | 24 Dalla Bona | 25 Vitale | 26 Domizzi | 28 P.Cannavaro | 29 Bucchi |  Rullo | Coach: Reja
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