SERIE A has always been home to some formidable strikers, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku and Dries Martens among those likely to be in the race to be Italian football’s leading scorer at the end of the season.
Yet ask even the most avid watcher to name the player who has scored the most goals in the division over the last four seasons and you are likely to gather names like Mauro Icardi, Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala, when the answer is none of these aforementioned players.
Indeed, since August 2016, Ciro Immobile has scored a league-leading 76 goals in Serie A, a tally that puts him 10 ahead of any other player. But you won’t hear many people putting the Lazio hitman in the same bracket as those already mentioned here, and the truth is that’s probably fully justified.
Immobile’s career has been a study in peaks and troughs, meaning the next “dip” is likely to be just around the corner. He was born just outside Naples and joined local club Sorrento at the age of 12, impressing so much that Juventus soon came calling and brought him into their youth sector, watching him finish as top scorer at the prestigious Viareggio Tournament in 2010.
9 goals in 8 games makes @ciroimmobile the current Serie A Capocannoniere
Is It his year to win top goalscorer ⁉️⚽️
@rngfx96 pic.twitter.com/8t2BuviTKZ
— Italian Football TV (@IFTVofficial) October 21, 2019
A first-team debut at 19 was followed by a flurry of loan spells, first with Siena – at the time led by Antonio Conte – and then Grosseto before eventually joining Pescara for the 2011/12 campaign. That would see him play under the tutelage of Zdenek Zeman and, as he has with so many other young attackers, the cavalier coach would help tap into Immobile’s full potential.
With Marco Verratti and Lorenzo Insigne in the same team, Pescara took Serie B by storm, finishing top of the table to secure a place in the top flight thanks largely to Immobile’s 28 goals. The explosion was followed by an ill-advised move to Genoa where he scored just five times, leading to questions about whether he was up to the demands of Serie A football.
From there he would move on to Torino, used by Juve in the deal that saw current West Ham defender Angelo Ogbonna join the Bianconeri. Another high would immediately follow as he smashed 22 league goals to become Capocannoniere, securing a high profile move to Borussia Dortmund as a result.
Ten goals in 34 games was hardly the kind of return the German side were looking for and they sent him to Sevilla where he would fare little better, netting four times in 15 appearances. A return to Torino saw him net five times in 14 games, prompting Lazio to swoop in and buy Immobile for €8.75 million, less than half the fee Dortmund had paid just two years earlier.
Their belief that he could rediscover his best form was instantly rewarded as he bagged 23 goals in his first season, 29 in his second and 15 last term. He has already struck nine times after just eight league games of the current campaign, once again looking like the division’s deadliest striker and a contender for that Capocannoniere crown.
The latest came via a last-minute penalty that saw Lazio earn a draw with Atalanta, with Immobile’s team arguably now as erratic as his own goal scoring form. The Rome-based side have proven capable of going toe-to-toe with Italy’s biggest clubs, but have also lost to SPAL and (Europa League opponents) Cluj this term, their performances capable of swinging from insipid and lethargic to inspired and lethal within seconds.
If that draw with Atalanta – a game that saw them 0-3 down at half-time only to grab a point following a superb second half display – encapsulated those wild juxtapositions, then Immobile’s celebration of the equaliser was perhaps the perfect embodiment of his entire career. He stepped up to cooly dispatch the spot kick and wheeled away in delight, trying to pull off his shirt and falling flat on his face as a result.
Ciro Immobile failing to take off his jersey in celebration and falling down is the funniest thing you'll see today. pic.twitter.com/IxHncEJxxw
— Eagle-Eyed Social Media User Dan Why-Ner (@DanWeiner) October 19, 2019
It was exploding at Torino then flopping in Spain and Germany encapsulated in one embarrassing moment, and helps to underscore just how fragile his impact can be. Considering his rich form for Lazio, he has failed to carry that over to the national team, netting just eight times in 38 appearances for Italy.
A goal in September marked his first in over two years for the Azzurri, Immobile admitting to RAI that the barren run was “something that was hanging around my neck” before stating he felt he was “getting my confidence back.”
That lack of self belief is perhaps undermining every positive step, an idea that crystallised last year when he was asked about Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival at Juventus. “Thank God I had time to become top scorer last year,” Immobile told Sky Italia. “It will be very difficult to face him, both on the pitch and in the race to be the leading goal scorer. He won the prize many times and will try to repeat that in Italy.”
While it may only be an honest admission, it is difficult to imagine any other striker speaking in that way rather than talk up their own chances of walking away with the Capocannoniere honours. Immobile has already claimed the prize twice in his career, but even he doesn’t believe he can do so again.
That self-imposed glass ceiling means the next dip is probably closer than it appears for Ciro Immobile.
