Filippo "Pippo" Inzaghi Ufficiale OMRI (Italian pronunciation: ; born 9 August 1973) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who played as a striker. He was nicknamed "Superpippo" or "Alta tensione" by fans and commentators during his playing career. He is the head coach of Serie B club Reggina. His younger brother, Simone Inzaghi, is also a former footballer and current manager of Italian club Inter.
Inzaghi played as a striker for several Italian clubs, and spent the most notable spells of his club career with Juventus and AC Milan, winning two UEFA Champions League titles (2003, 2007), and three Serie A titles (1998, 2004, 2011). He is the seventh highest scorer in Italy, with 313 goals scored in official matches. He is currently the sixth-highest goal scorer in European club competitions with 70 goals, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Raúl and Karim Benzema. He is also Milan's top international goal scorer in the club's history with 43 goals. He also holds the record for most hat-tricks in Serie A with 10.
At international level, Inzaghi earned 57 caps for the Italy national team between 1997 and 2007, scoring 25 goals. He represented his country at three FIFA World Cups, winning the 2006 edition, and he also took part at UEFA Euro 2000, where he won a runners-up medal.
Between 1993 and 1996, Inzaghi made 14 appearances for the Italy under-21 team, scoring three goals; he was also a member of the Italy under-21 squad that won the 1994 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. Inzaghi earned his first senior cap for Italy in the Tournoi de France, against Brazil on 8 June 1997, under his former under-21 manager Cesare Maldini, and provided an assist to goalscorer Alessandro Del Piero. Italy went on to draw 3–3. He scored his first goal for Italy on 18 November 1998, in a 2–2 friendly draw against Spain; he has since scored 25 goals in 57 appearances. He was called up for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2000, the 2002 World Cup and the 2006 World Cup.
Although Inzaghi went scoreless throughout the 1998 World Cup, as he was mainly deployed as a substitute, he came off the bench to set up a goal for Roberto Baggio in Italy's final group match against Austria, which ended in a 2–1 win, and allowed Italy to top their group; Italy were knocked out in the quarter finals on penalties to hosts and eventual champions France. At Euro 2000, he was one of Italy's starting strikers under the new Italy manager Dino Zoff. He scored two goals throughout the tournament; his first came from a penalty, in Italy's 2–1 opening group win over Turkey, in which he was named man of the match, while his second came in a 2–0 win over Romania in the quarter-finals of the competition; he also set up Stefano Fiore's goal in a 2–0 win over co-hosts Belgium in his nation's second group match of the tournament. His performances helped Italy reach the final, where they were defeated by France once again, on a golden goal. Along with Francesco Totti, he was Italy's top-scorer throughout the tournament.
Under Zoff's replacement, Giovanni Trapattoni, Inzaghi was Italy's top goalscorer during the qualifying rounds of the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004, scoring his first and only international hat-trick in a 4–0 home win over Wales on 6 September 2003, although he missed the latter tournament due to injury. He went scoreless throughout the 2002 World Cup, making two appearances, as Italy were controversially eliminated in the round of 16 to co-hosts South Korea; in Italy's 2–1 loss to Croatia in their second group match, Materazzi played a floating ball over the top from just over half way to Inzaghi in the 90th minute, but everyone missed the ball and it rolled into the back of the net, although the goal was disallowed after referee Graham Poll claimed that Inzaghi had grabbed an opponent's shirt. Inzaghi also had a goal wrongly disallowed in Italy's final group match against Mexico, which ended in a 1–1 draw.
Inzaghi's persistent knee and ankle injuries put a halt to his international play for almost two years before his resurgence at club level, which resulted in being called up by Italy coach Marcello Lippi for the 2006 World Cup final tournament. Due to the abundance of other top strikers such as Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti and Luca Toni, Inzaghi made his only appearance – subbing on for Alberto Gilardino – in Italy's final group stage match against the Czech Republic on 22 June 2006, scoring his only goal in the tournament, rounding Petr Čech in a one-on-one encounter to net in Italy's second goal, which made him the oldest player to have scored for Italy in a World Cup, after Daniele Massaro. Italy went on to win the tournament, defeating France on penalties in the final.
Following Italy's fourth World Cup victory, Inzaghi made six appearances under new manager Roberto Donadoni in Italy's UEFA Euro 2008 qualification campaign, scoring three goals, two of which came in a 2–1 away win against the Faroe Islands on 2 June 2007. He was not called up for the final tournament, however, where Italy were eliminated by eventual champions Spain in the quarter-finals on penalties, and he made his last appearance for Italy on 8 September 2007, in a 0–0 draw against France in Milan.
Inzaghi is currently the sixth-highest goalscorer in the Italian national team's history, with 25 goals, alongside Adolfo Baloncieri and Alessandro Altobelli.
1985-1991 |
1991-1995 |
1992-1993 (Loan) |
1993-1994 (Loan) |
1995-1996 |
1996-1997 |
1997-2001 |
1997-2007 |
2001-2012 |
2014-2015 Manager |
2016-2018 Manager |
2018-2019 Manager |
2019-2021 Manager |
2021-2022 Manager |
2019-2020-2021 |