Ever since bursting onto the European scene just over a decade ago, Pippo Inzaghi has always divided opinion.
There has been the constant and frustratingly annoying criticism over his poor technical attributes, his lack of strength, and of course his tendency to be flagged offside.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson once famously remarked that “Pippo Inzaghi was born in the offside position.”
However as many people still fail to understand, despite his quite incredible goalscoring record, these handicaps are irrelevant as Inzaghi is quite simply one of the greatest penalty-box strikers the world has ever seen.
I can say without apprehension that there is no forward in the history of the beautiful game that has better movement and striker intelligence than SuperPippo.
His ability to lose his marker, his near-post runs, his anticipation, his knack of being in the right place at the right time, and his sharpness – these are all unrivalled.
The reason he is often offside is because he plays on the shoulder of the last defender and takes gambles that other ‘normal’ strikers would not even know existed. In fact Inzaghi is often too sharp even for the linesmen and if you tried to count the number of incorrect offside decisions that have been given against him over his career you would be occupied until the next millennium.
Unfortunately Inzaghi’s unique talent is often overlooked by the football community, who brand him ‘lucky’ for always scoring ‘tap-ins’ and point to his poor technical ability.
Dutch legend Johann Cruyff has said of Inzaghi, “Look he actually can’t play football at all. He is just always in the right position.”
And this is what being a penalty-box striker is all about!
The result is that Inzaghi is now level with the great Gerd Muller as the top goalscorer in European club football history. Inzaghi’s 62 strikes in 97 games means that he virtually scores two goals every three games – a quite sensational ratio.
SuperPippo’s brace against Shakhtar Donetsk last night also means he has now scored 41 Champions League goals in 69 appearances.
The 34-year-old also has a superb international scoring record, having hit the back of the net 25 times for Italy in 57 appearances. This total would surely be higher, had it not been for the plethora of world-class forwards in the peninsula over the past 10 years.
All in all Inzaghi is fast approaching 250 career goals, having played less than 500 games.
He has won virtually all of the prestigious trophies that there are to win in football – the FIFA World Cup, the Champions League (twice), the Scudetto (three times), and this December has the chance to add the World Club Cup to his bulging trophy cabinet.
It is also important to note that Inzaghi is a big-game player and he has always scored in the matches that really matter. You only have to look at last May's Champions League Final against Liverpool for evidence of this.
All these records and statistics speak for themselves, however still some people question the brilliance of the man.
At the age of 34, clearly Inzagol is not the player he once was, however judged on his substitute performance last night, he still has a hell of a lot to offer.
During the summer ‘The King’ himself, Pele, passed this tribute to Inzaghi:
“I don’t know if Milan really need a striker. They have Inzaghi, who is incredible! I thought it would be fantastic if I could bring Pippo to Santos. With him at the centre of the attack, we’d win five titles on the trot.
“There are no defenders in the world able to mark him, as he always seems to score.”
SuperPippo is undoubtedly one of the greatest strikers of all time – and we may not see a player in his unique mould for many years to come.
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