ACF Fiorentina to make Luca Toni bid

FLORENCE, ITALY – ACF Fiorentina have signed 2006 World Cup winner Luca Toni in the last hours of the Serie A trading. The Tuscan team was looking for a new striker and the 35-year-old centre-forward was available on a free transfer. Toni, also linked with Spanish club Malaga this summer, recently left Al Nasr following his 2012 January switch from Juventus.

His style is at times seen as being unorthodox. His strength, however, and power have seen him become one of Serie A’s most lethal finishers of the past decade. As well as the medals he has collected, he has also won several individual honours, including the Capocannonieri for the 2005–06 season in which he scored 31 goals, as well as finishing topscorer with 24 goals in the 2007–08 Fußball-Bundesliga.

Toni moved to Fiorentina the first time in 2005 for  €10 million euros. During his first season in Florence, he scored 31 goals, making him one of the most prolific Serie A strikers of all-time (the most goals ever scored in a season being 35); this was also the first time in 50 years that a Serie A player had scored more than 30 goals.

Toni was awarded the European Golden Shoe for this feat, the first Italian player to win this award. His goal scoring ability brought Fiorentina to heights never seen since the late 1990s, when the Argentine Gabriel Batistuta was playing for them. They clinched fourth spot and qualified for the Champions League.

This league position, however, was revoked in the courts during the Calciopoli scandal. Italian courts recognized Fiorentina as culpable of shady dealings and convicted them to start the 2006–07 season with a 19 point deduction.

Toni expressed his desire to leave the team several times during the summer to the press, but was eventually convinced by club president Andrea Della Valle to stay and help the club overcome its unfavourable position.

The following season was plagued by injury, limiting Toni’s goals to a less considerable, albeit impressive, 16 goals. This was Toni’s final season at the Florence club, as they agreed to sell him to German Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. Before he left, Toni promised Della Valle not to sign for any big Italian clubs, which is believed to be the main reason he went to Germany.