Igor Protti (born 24 September 1967) is an Italian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who currently works as a general manager for

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

. Throughout his playing career, he made a name for himself as a prolific and opportunistic striker, who mainly operated in the penalty area. Protti started his career with his hometown club

Rimini Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...

in 1983; although he played for several Italian club sides throughout his career, including

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

and

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

, he is mostly remembered for his time with

, where he established himself as a legendary figure in the club's history during his second spell with the side, and eventually remained with the team until his retirement. Along with

Dario Hübner Dario Hübner (born 28 April 1967) is an Italian former professional footballer. Nicknamed ("The Bison"), he scored over 300 goals throughout his career, only playing in the higher divisions towards the end of his career. Hübner became the ol ...

, Protti is the only player to have won the top scoring titles in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

, and

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

; he is also the only Serie A top-scorer to have suffered relegation with his club (

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

, at the time).

Playing career

Protti spent the majority of his early career playing for teams in lower divisions; he made his career debut in

at the age of 16, with his home-town club

, on 27 May 1984. After two seasons with the club, he later moved on to Livorno in 1985, for three seasons. After a season period with Virescit Bergamo, he was acquired by

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

in 1989, and he became an important figure with the club, making his

debut with Messina, and scoring 31 goals over three seasons. In 1992, he moved to

, and after two seasons in Serie B, he helped his team to achieve Serie A promotion. During the 1994–95 season, he scored his first goal in

against Napoli, as well as his first ever hat-trick, against Lazio. He came to more widespread notice during the 1995–96

season, in which he shared the top-scoring title with

Giuseppe Signori Giuseppe "Beppe" Signori (; born 17 February 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He played for several clubs in Italy throughout his career, and also had spells in Greece and Hungary with Iraklis Thess ...

, scoring 24 goals (including a brace against

Inter Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * Inter Playa del Carmen, a Mexican club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, ...

), despite his team, Bari, being

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

. This achievement led to a move to

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, but Protti's stay with the Rome club was not successful, and after two seasons with the club, including a loan to

during the 1997–98 season, he was eventually released from his contract in 1998. After a spell in Serie B at Reggiana ( 1998–99), helping the club to Serie A promotion, Protti returned to

in 1999, where he rapidly became one of the most popular players in that club's history, scoring 11 goals during his first season with the club. He later captained Livorno, leading the club to Serie B promotion during the 2001–02 Serie C1 season, winning the title, and finishing the campaign as the top-scorer, and the following season he was the top-scorer in Serie B. He subsequently led Livorno to

promotion during the 2003–04 season, before retiring in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

after the team had finished a surprising 9th in their first top division campaign in many years, leaving the captain's armband to

Cristiano Lucarelli Cristiano Lucarelli (; born 4 October 1975) is an Italian football manager and a former player who played as a forward. Club career Lucarelli was born in Livorno, Italy. A journeyman striker, he had stints with eight different teams (includ ...

. Protti's number 10 was then retired by the club. He has also been given the freedom of the city of Livorno in 2007. During the awarding ceremony, he asked the #10 jersey not to be retired any longer in order to "give anybody back the dream to dress it one day". The number was to be reassigned starting from the 2007–08 season, with Francesco Tavano wearing the number 10 shirt.

Post-playing career

In June 2015, Protti was hired as the new director of football of Tuttocuoio, with former Livorno teammate

as head coach. They were both relieved from their roles in April 2016. In June 2016, Protti returned to Livorno as a "club manager". He left Livorno by the end of the 2018–19 season. He returned to work with Livorno as a "club manager" in August 2021, following the club's exclusion from

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

and successive admission to

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football.Official ...

under a new property. In July 2022, Protti was promoted as general manager.

Honours

Lazio *

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana, also known as the Italian Super Cup, is an annual super cup tournament in Italian football. Founded in 1988 as a two-team competition, it has featured four teams since 2023 (the winners and runners-up of the previous ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

Livorno *

: 2001–02 Individual * Serie A top scorer: 1995–96 (24 goals, along with

) *Serie B top scorer: 2002–03 (23 goals) *Serie C1 top scorer: 2000–01 (20 goals), 2001–02 (27 goals)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Protti, Igor 1967 births Living people Footballers from Rimini Men's association football forwards Italian men's footballers SSC Bari players SS Lazio players SSD Virtus CiseranoBergamo 1909 players ACR Messina players SSC Napoli players AC Reggiana 1919 players Rimini FC 1912 players US Livorno 1915 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players 20th-century Italian sportsmen