Capocannoniere is the title all Calcio strikers dream off, it is the title given to the top scorer of Serie A, and it is the most prestigious title for any forward in Italian football. Here are the numbers of the Capocannonieri of the last 10 seasons in Serie A:
In Season 2010/2011 it was “Antonio Di Natale” scoring 28 goals, 2009/2010 it was also “Antonio Di Natale” with 29 goals. While in 2008/2009 “Zlatan Ibrahimovic” was on top with 25 goals, and in 2007/2008 El Grande Capitano “Alessandro Del Piero” made it by scoring 21 goals. Season 2006/2007 it was Roma’s Idol “Francesco Totti” who scored 26 goals, and by 2005/2006 season “Luca Toni” netted 31 goals. In Season 2004/2005 surprisingly it was “Cristiano Lucarelli” with 24 goals and with the same amount of goals in 2003/2004 the good old Sheva “Andriy Shevchenko”. In Season 2002/2003 BOBO was up to it “Christian Vieri” scored 24 goals, finally in 2001/2002 there was a tie of 24 goals between David Trezeguet and Dario Hubner.
· Only 3 foreign players were able to get the Capocannoniere title, 8 Italian players were dominating the last 10 years
· In the last 10 years the Capocannoniere was 2 times from Udinese, 2 times from Juventus, 2 times from Inter Milan, and 1 time from each of Milan, Roma, Livorno, Fiorentina and Piacenza
Antonio Di Natale: scoring 64% of Udinese’s goals up till now, Di Natalie is looking forward to scoring his hat-trick Capocannoniere title only Michel Platini and Gunnar Nordhal were able to do that, so Di Natale might just be the first Italian ever to remain Sereie A’s top goal socrer for 3 years in a row. The only Italian player on the 50’s list for the Ballon d'Or, at last is starting to convince Italy’s Coach Prandelli as The Azzurri coach said a few days ago that if Di Natale continued to play with this performance he will be forced to take him in Euro 2012. Di Natale has scored 141 goals in 275 Udinese games with the rate of 0.51 goals per game, as he scored the highest number of goals in 1 season for Udinese with 29 goals topping Oliver Bierhoff.
Individual titles:
· Capocannoniere for the seasons of 2010 and 2011
· Italian Footballer of the Year 2010
Miroslav Klose: The 33 Year Old German footballer came to the city of Roma, with a dream to play for his National team till the next World Cup so that he could beat Ronaldo’s 15 goals, as Miroslav is standing for 14 goals now 1 goal away from Ronaldo and 2 goals away from being The Greatest World Cup Goal Scorer Of All Time. Anyway nobody believed that dream except Klose himself, as his last season with Bayern Munich he scored only 1 goal in the Bundesliga. The German travelled to Italy with a lot of pens criticizing Lazio for buying a finished player, Klose started off his debut by scoring the first goal in Serie A for the season, as he continues his stunning performance by scoring 8 goals in the 11 matches he played for Lazio with a rate of 0.73 goals per game, spinning around the same pens to talk about one of the most successful deals of this summer! The question is will Klose return back in top to achieve his dream? Will the help of Cisse, Hernanes and Mauri get the 33 year old back to the good old days of Werder Bremen? Will he be the second German Capocannoniere since Oliver Bierhoff’s 97/98 season?
Individual titles:
· Bundesliga Top Goal scorer (25 goals): 2006 (with Werder Bremen)
· German Footballer of the Year: 2006
· World Cup Silver Shoe: 2002
· World Cup Golden Shoe: 2006
· Selected for the All-star team in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups
· FIFA World Cup second all-time top scorer along with Gerd Müller: 14 goals
· Germany's second all-time top scorer: 62 goals
· Most goals per consecutive FIFA World Cups: 14 goals (5 in 2002, 5 in 2006, and 4 in 2010)
Edison Cavani: El Matador is a Uruguayan Footballer playing for the San Paolo fans. Cavani came to Italy when he was still 20 years old scoring a goal on his debut for Zamparini’s side. Cavani stayed in Palermo for 3 seasons scoring 34 goals. As he joined Napoli he formed the nightmare trio with Lavezzi and Hamsik, the kind of players any striker would dream of playing with, El Matador was able score goals in all of his first 4 games with Napoli, he continued his magnificent performance through the rest of the season by breaking Maradona’s record and scoring 26 goals for Napoli in Serie A last season and standing as Napoli’s best ever goal scorer in 1 season, and two goals away from the Capocannoniere. Cavani scored 39 goals in 58 games with the rate of 0.67 goals per game. Will El Matador be first ever Uruguayan to hold the Capocannoniere title?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic: he is the last foreign Capocannoniere, he is the one who played for the 3 big Italian teams, the second highest transfer fee in football history, he played under the most successful coaches all over the world such as Capello, Mourinho and Guardiola. He is Milan’s favorite striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swedish striker born in Malmo has always been a threat to any defense, always showing up as a powerful player with a truly fantastic talent, he is one of the best in scoring goals and assisting them. Zlatan has scored 28 goals in 58 games with a rate of 0.48 goals per game. This year Zlatan has more chances in becoming the Capocannoniere with players like Cassano and Boateng rising to their top form and with Milan’s new purchase Aquilani, Zlatan will be finding the perfect assists to fire-up his goals in the back of the oppositions’ nets.
Individual titles:
· Serie A Top Scorer: 2009
· Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year: 2005, 2008, 2009
· Serie A Footballer of the Year: 2008, 2009
· Guldbollen (The Golden Ball): 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
· UEFA Team of the Year: 2007, 2009
· Swedish Male Athlete of the Year: 2007, 2010
· Jerringpriset: 2007
Alessandro Matri: The27 Year Old Italian is starting to shine every game in his new Juve jersey, the player signed last January has been more than impressive this season being involved in more than half of his team’s goals up till the 9th round. Matri scored 20 goals last year to both teams Cagliari and Juventus and promised to score another 20 this year. Alessandro will have a huge opportunity this season to catch his first title, as he is in the strongest, most stable team in Serie A and if Mr.Conte continues in his 4-3-3 formation Matri will be playing a major role in most of Juve’s goals. Matri scored 13 goals in his 23 Juve games till now with the rate of 0.57 goals per game. Will the 20 goals be enough for the boy from Sant'Angelo Lodigiano to score his first Capocannoniere title?