Marco Di Vaio (; born 15 July 1976) 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 played as a striker. A prolific goalscorer, in his long club career, Di Vaio scored over 200 league goals while playing for several clubs, mainly in Italy, as well as in France, Spain and Canada. At international level, Di Vaio represented the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team () has represented Italy in men's international Association football, football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for fo ...

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

Club career

Early career

Di Vaio started his career at his hometown club

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 ...

. He made his Serie A debut on 20 November 1994 against

Padova Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of ...

. He then played for Serie B clubs such as

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

and

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 ...

, before moving to

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is an Italian professional football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recently in 2011. The current ...

in 1997.

Salernitana

He was a revelation at Salernitana, leading them to their second promotion to the Serie A in 1997–98 as the top scorer in

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 ...

for that season.

Parma

Despite Salernitana's relegation the following season, Di Vaio remained 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 ...

, after being purchased by Parma. He scored an impressive number of goals for the Gialloblu and he went on to become the 2nd highest scorer of the league in his third season for the team.

Juventus

Juventus won the race to sign him during the following summer (2002), by paying Parma €7 million (€2 million plus 50% registration rights of Brighi) for the loan. But Di Vaio never really reproduced the form he showed at Parma, mainly because of the immense competition for a first-team places at Juventus. Initially a loan signing, he was signed permanently in summer 2003 for €14 million. During his stay with Juventus, he managed to win one ''

scudetto The ''scudetto'' (; Italian for 'little shield') is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous ...

'', and reached

2003 UEFA Champions League final The 2003 UEFA Champions League final was a Association football, football match that took place at Old Trafford in Manchester, England on 28 May 2003 to decide the winner of the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League. The match was contested by two Ital ...

Valencia

Due to an early exit from the

UEFA Champions League 2003–04 The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach football in Europe and the transcontinental countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, ...

and coupled with the arrival of new coach

Fabio Capello Fabio Capello (; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional association football, football manager (association football), manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL, AS Roma, Roma, AC Milan and Juventus FC, Juventus. H ...

, Juventus began a restructuring of their first team squad. As a result, Di Vaio and his striking partner

Fabrizio Miccoli Fabrizio Miccoli (; born on 27 June 1979) is an Italian former professional association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He scored 103 goals in 259 matches in Serie A across nine seasons, representing ...

were soon frozen out. Di Vaio moved to defending UEFA Cup and La Liga champions Valencia on a five-year contract, costing Valencia € 10.5million, joining up with fellow countrymen, coach

Claudio Ranieri Claudio Ranieri (; born 20 October 1951) is an Italian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Serie A club AS Roma, Roma but will leave on 30 June 2025, followin ...

and new signing

Bernardo Corradi Bernardo Corradi (; born 30 March 1976) is an Italian former association football, football coach and former player. A forward (association football), forward, he played top-division football for several teams in Italy, Spain, and England, and ...

. Di Vaio partnered Corradi up front in ten La Liga matches, creating a total of four goals. He managed a mere eleven league goals during his spell in Spain. His presence in the first team line-up of Valencia became restricted with the arrivals of

Patrick Kluivert Patrick Stephan Kluivert (; born 1 July 1976) is a Dutch football coach and former player who is currently the head coach of the Indonesia national team. As a player, he played as a striker for Ajax, Barcelona and the Netherlands national te ...

and

David Villa David Villa Sánchez (; born 3 December 1981) is a Spanish former professional association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker. Regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation, Villa is th ...

, along with the sacking of Ranieri. New coach

Quique Sánchez Flores Enrique "Quique" Sánchez Flores (; born 5 February 1965) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a right-back. He began his professional career with Valencia in 1984, going on to amass La Liga totals of 304 games and 16 g ...

preferred to use

Miguel Ángel Angulo Miguel Ángel Angulo Valderrey (; born 23 June 1977) is a Spanish former professional footballer, currently manager of Valencia CF Mestalla. Predominantly an attacking midfielder, he was also able to play as a right winger and even as a right- ...

as Villa's strike partner or utilised a 4–5–1 formation, with Villa as the lone frontman. This restricted Di Vaio to only one league start during the 2005–06 season.

Monaco

In January 2006, Di Vaio was loaned out to

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

side

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

with an option to make the deal permanent. Along with Di Vaio, countryman

Christian Vieri Christian Vieri (; born 12 July 1973), commonly known as Bobo Vieri, is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre forward. Having been born in Italy, Vieri moved with his family to Australia as a child, before returning ...

was also signed and partnered him for seven French league matches, yielding three goals, all of which were scored by Vieri. Initially an insurance signing for injured Javier Chevantón, and to replace the departing

Emmanuel Adebayor Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor (; born 26 February 1984) is a Togolese former professional footballer who played as a striker. During his career, he played for English clubs Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace, as well as ...

, the Italian duo created opportunities for Chevantón to score goals in the second half of the season. In his second season, Di Vaio became the third choice striker behind new signings

Jan Koller Jan Koller (; born 30 March 1973) is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was noted for his height, strong physique and heading ability. He began his career at Sparta Prague, then moved to Belgium, where he beca ...

and

Jérémy Menez Jérémy is a French masculine given name. It is a spelling variant of Jérémie, itself the French variant of the biblical name Jeremiah. Its cognate in English is Jeremy which means "God will uplift". People with the given name Jérémy includ ...

, restricting him to just six first team appearances.

Genoa

On 22 January 2007, after an unsuccessful spell in Ligue 1, Di Vaio surprisingly returned to Italy by signing with

club

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, a side strongly pushing for promotion, for €1.8 million.Genoa CFC Report and Accounts on 31 December 2008 The club duly achieved promotion, but once in Serie A, the partnership of

Marco Borriello Marco Borriello (; born 18 June 1982) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker. Throughout his career, Borriello played for several Italian clubs, includin ...

and

Giuseppe Sculli Giuseppe Sculli (born 23 March 1981) is a retired Italian footballer who played in several positions; primarily a striker, he could play anywhere along the front-line, and also played as a winger, as a second striker, and even as a right-side ...

was preferred, leaving Di Vaio to make only nine appearances.

Bologna

On 21 August 2008, it was confirmed that Di Vaio had signed for

side

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, recently promoted from

. This reunited with former Genoa teammate Adaílton. Di Vaio was a surprise star in the 2008–09 season, scoring an impressive 24 goals for a mediocre Bologna side. He finished the season as joint second top-scorer alongside

striker

Diego Milito Diego Alberto Milito (born 12 June 1979) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was nicknamed ''El Principe'' ("The Prince" in Spanish) because of his physical resemblance with former Uruguayan footballer En ...

. At the end of season, Bologna signed him on free transfer. In his period at Bologna, Di Vaio regained reputation as a key prolific striker, rapidly becoming a fan favourite, as well as team captain and one of the reference players during the two club takeovers in the 2010–11 season, ensuring himself a contract extension until June 2013; following the announcement, Di Vaio also state his desire to spend the rest of his footballing career as a Bologna player. However, on 4 May 2012, Di Vaio confirmed that the 2011–12 season will be his last with Bologna, and that he would be considering various options for his future.

Montreal Impact

After lengthy negotiations, Montreal Impact announced that Marco Di Vaio had signed as the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

club's first Designated Player. Di Vaio made his Impact debut on 27 June 2012 against

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matc ...

, and scored his first goal a month later on 28 July 2012 against

New York Red Bulls The New York Red Bulls are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conferenc ...

. Di Vaio scored his first goal of the 2014 season against

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the Union began ...

on 29 March 2014. On 25 October 2014, in his last game as a professional, Di Vaio scored the opening goal in a 1–1 draw at home to

D.C. United D.C. United is an American professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supp ...

. Di Vaio retired following the 2014 season.

International career

Di Vaio made his senior International debut for

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

under manager

Giovanni Trapattoni Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), popularly nicknamed "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian former Association football, football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Football in Italy, Italian football ...

, on 5 September 2001, in a friendly match in Piacenza against

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, which ended in a 1–0 home victory to Italy. He scored his first goal for Italy on 11 October 2003, in Reggio Calabria, in a 4–0 home win over

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

in a

UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying Qualification for the 2004 UEFA European Championship took place between September 2002 and November 2003. Fifty teams were divided into ten groups, with each team playing the others in their group twice, once at home and once away. The top te ...

match. Di Vaio played for

under

, appearing in Italy's final group match, which ended in a 2–1 victory over

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, although Italy were still eliminated in the first round of the competition. Di Vaio later received several call-ups from

Marcello Lippi Marcello Romeo Lippi (; born 12 April 1948) is an Italian former professional association football, football player and manager, who led the Italy national football team, Italy national team to victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was appoin ...

who had previously coached Di Vaio at Juventus. However, a loss of form whilst with Valencia, coupled with the emergence of

Luca Toni Luca Toni (; born 26 May 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a striker. A prolific goalscorer, Toni scored over 300 goals throughout his career, and is one of the top-five highest scoring Italians in all competition ...

and

Alberto Gilardino Alberto Gilardino (; born 5 July 1982) is an Italian professional football manager and a former player who played as a striker. He was most recently the manager of club Genoa. A prolific goalscorer, in Gilardino's early career he was compared ...

, led to Di Vaio losing his place with the national team. He made his final appearance for Italy with Lippi on 9 October 2004, in a 1–0 away loss to Slovenia, in a 2006 World Cup Qualifying match. In total, Di Vaio appeared 14 times with the national side, scoring two goals.

Post-retirement

Di Vaio joined Bologna as club manager after his retirement as a footballer.

Style of play

A prolific goalscorer, Di Vaio was a quick, opportunistic, and versatile player, who was capable of playing anywhere along the

front-line A front line (alternatively front-line or frontline) in military terminology is the position(s) closest to the area of conflict of an armed force's personnel and equipment, usually referring to land forces. When a front (an intentional or uni ...

, as a striker, or even as a winger, due to his solid technique and distribution. His preferred role, however, was that of a

centre-forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than Midfielder, midfielders and Defender (association football), d ...

, where he could take advantage of his goalscoring ability in the area and skill in the air. He also had a powerful and accurate shot from distance, and was an accurate penalty taker.

Career statistics

Club

International

International statistics

Honours

Salernitana *

: 1997–98 Parma *

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

: 2001–02 *

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 ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

Juventus *

: 2002–03 *

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

runner-up: 2002–03 Valencia *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Montreal Impact *

Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship () is an annual soccer tournament contested by Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. It is contested by Major League Soccer sides Toronto FC, Va ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Individual *

top scorer: 1997–98 *

MLS All-Star The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual Association football, soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from another league. MLS initially ado ...

MLS Best XI The MLS Best XI is an annual acknowledgment of the best eleven players in Major League Soccer. The selection is determined by a collection of media, players, and MLS club technical staffs. Winners Appearances by player The following players ...

* Montreal Impact Most Valuable Player: 2013 * Montreal Impact Top Scorer: 2013, 2014

References

External links

* * *
Profile at Italia1910.com
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Di Vaio, Marco Italian men's footballers Italy men's youth international footballers Italy men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players Italian expatriate men's footballers SS Lazio players Hellas Verona FC players SSC Bari players US Salernitana 1919 players Parma Calcio 1913 players Juventus FC players Valencia CF players AS Monaco FC players Genoa CFC players Bologna FC 1909 players CF Montréal players Serie A players Serie B players La Liga players Ligue 1 players Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Monaco Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Italian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Italian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Italian expatriate sportspeople in Canada Men's association football forwards Footballers from Rome 1976 births Living people Designated Players (MLS)