Marco Negri (born 27 October 1970) is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

former

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 for

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

Ternana Ternana Calcio, commonly referred to as Ternana, is an Italian football club based in Terni, Umbria and currently compete in the Serie C. The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana has twice played in Serie A ...

Cosenza Cosenza (; Languages of Calabria#Northern Calabrian (Cosentian), Cosentian: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city located in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000, while the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. ...

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

, Rangers,

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

Career

Early career in Italy and breakthrough with Perugia

Negri was born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

on 27 October 1970. He began his career during the 1988–89 season with

, making three appearances, and later also made five more for the club during the 1990–91 season. He spent the 1989–90

Serie C2 Serie C2 was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Serie C. The league menaging t ...

season with

, collecting 27 appearances. During the 1991–92 season, he won the

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 ...

title with

, scoring five goals in 32 appearances, and helped the club earn promotion to

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 ...

. He spent the following season with

, however, managing only four goals in 25 appearances. In 1993, he joined

in Serie C1, scoring 8 goals in 24 appearances, before later returning to Cosenza the following year, where he experienced his best season yet, scoring 19 goals in 34 appearances. He later made his breakthrough with

during the

1995–96 Serie B The Serie B 1995–96 was the sixty-fourth tournament of this competition played in Italy since its creation. Teams Bologna FC, Bologna, Pistoiese, Reggina Calcio, Reggina and US Avellino, Avellino had been promoted from Serie C, while Genoa CF ...

season, scoring 18 goals and helping the club achieve promotion to the Italian top flight. He made his

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 ...

debut the following season, also scoring his first goal in the top flight, in a 1–0 home win over Sampdoria. Despite his impressive tally of 15 goals in the league for the club during the 1996–97 season, he could not prevent the side from facing relegation, however, although his performances caught the attention of other clubs.

Rangers

Rangers manager

Walter Smith Walter Ferguson Smith (24 February 1948 – 26 October 2021) was a Scottish football player, manager and director, primarily associated with his two spells as manager of Glasgow club Rangers. A defender, Smith's playing career consiste ...

signed Negri from Perugia for £3.5 million in 1997. He was rewarded with instant success, as Negri scored 23 goals in his first ten league games, including all five goals in a 5–1 win over

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

in the second league game of the season on 23 August 1997 at

Ibrox Stadium Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox area of Glasgow, Scotland. The home of Scottish Premiership team Rangers, Ibrox is the third-largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated ca ...

, as well as his side's only goal in a 1–1 draw against

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

Celtic Park Celtic Park is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium and the home of Scottish Premiership team Celtic F.C., Celtic, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest List of football stadiums in Sco ...

. His low-key celebrations were noteworthy – often he felt the need only to exchange a handshake with other players and showed little exuberance. Negri easily topped the goalscoring charts in that first campaign, with 32 league goals. His scoring run was brought to an end on suffering a serious eye injury to his retina, attributed to a squash match with teammate Sergio Porrini. Back training after his eye injury, Negri suffered from further injuries. Following his return to action, he only scored twice and won two of his next 10 league games with the side, as Celtic prevented Rangers from winning a tenth consecutive league title. After that first season Negri only played three more first team games, and he sat out the whole of one campaign. Rangers then loaned him to

in 1999 and the striker returned to Ibrox injured. Eventually he was sold to his former club Bologna, in February 2001, having made only 40 appearances in all competitions for the Scottish side.

Later career

After his time with Bologna, Negri had a spell with

, and subsequently dropped down into

with

, scoring four goals in first three appearances, but they released him after only a few months following his declining performances. In 2004, the player had a trial at

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

, although he was not offered a contract. He later returned to Perugia, but only made three appearances for the club in Serie B. He eventually retired in 2005 to dedicate himself to his family.

References

External links

*
Sporting Heroes Profile

1997-98 Goals for Rangers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Negri, Marco 1970 births AC Perugia Calcio players US Livorno 1915 players Men's association football forwards Bologna FC 1909 players Cagliari Calcio players Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Italian expatriate men's footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Italian men's footballers Living people Cosenza Calcio 1914 players Novara FC players Rangers F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Premier League players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players LR Vicenza players Scottish league football top scorers Ternana Calcio players Udinese Calcio players Footballers from Milan