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Premiership Capsules - Fabrizio Ravanelli

Jim Grimason

8/16/07

This week, 11 years ago....

Fabrizio Ravanelli bagged a hat-trick on his Middlesbrough debut against Premiership big guns Liverpool on the opening day of the 1996/97 campaign. It was a pulsating start to the new season at the Riverside Stadium and really was a cracking game that finished 3-3, Ravanelli equalizing each of Liverpool’s goals. Few foreigners make such an instant impact in English football as the “white feather”.

He was brought to Teesside by Bryan Robson for a club record 7 million pounds from Champions League winners Juventus and was made the highest paid player in the country. At Boro, he would team up with the Brazilian trio of Emerson, Juninho and Branco. A lot of money had been spent assembling the team and the fans had every right to be optimistic.
Money alone, as many have discovered the hard way, does not guarantee success, though.

Ravanelli only spent one season with Middlesbrough and a truly bizarre one it was. Despite scoring 33 goals in all competitions, he received a lot of criticism from teammates and supporters alike for his constant complaints about the club’s training facilities and the town itself. The team, however, managed to reach both the FA and League Cup finals only to lose both and get relegated in the same year.

It was the strangest of seasons for Boro, if the despair of losing two cup finals and relegation wasn’t bad enough, they subsequently lost their big name players to other clubs. Ravanelli was of course one of them and he joined French side Marseille for 5.3 million pounds in September 1997.

The Italian striker, known for his trademark shirt-over-head goal celebration, went on to play for a number of European clubs including a stint back in England with Derby before returning to his hometown club Perugia in 2004 were he played out his footballing days.