Corrado Grabbi

Corrado Grabbi (born 29 July 1975) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was nicknamed "Ciccio" throughout his career.[1]

Corrado Grabbi
Personal information
Full name Corrado Grabbi
Date of birth (1975-07-29) 29 July 1975
Place of birth Turin, Italy
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Striker
Team information
Current team
 Juventus (Under-15 youth coach)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1993–1994 Sparta Novara 31 (8)
1994–1995 Juventus 2 (1)
1995 Lucchese 8 (1)
1995–1996 Chievo 18 (2)
1996–1998 Modena 58 (30)
1998–1999 Ternana 14 (2)
1999–2000 Ravenna 29 (13)
2000–2001 Ternana 34 (20)
2001–2004 Blackburn Rovers 30 (2)
2002 → Messina (loan) 12 (4)
2004 Ancona 7 (0)
2005–2006 Genoa 25 (8)
2006–2007 Arezzo 7 (0)
2007–2008 Bellinzona 6 (0)
Total 281 (91)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 14 May 2008

He is currently under contract with Juventus as a Under-15 youth coach.

Playing career

Early career

Born in Turin, Grabbi began his career with the Juventus youth team. He is also the grandson of former Juventus player Giuseppe Grabbi.[2] He was later promoted to the first team and scored on his debut against Lazio, in one of his total two appearances in the 1994–95 season.[1] Unable to break into the team, because of his young age and the contemporary explosion of Alessandro Del Piero, he was loaned to Lucchese (76 games, 8 goals) and then Chievo (18 games, 2 goals) before switching to Modena. There he found some real form, scoring 30 times in 58 appearances. This performance saw him signed by Ternana, where he played for one season before been loaned to Ravenna where he scored 13 goals. When he returned to Ternana he became a regular scorer again, with 20 goals in 34 games and became an idol for the local supporters, who still remember him as the best player to ever have played for Ternana.[1]

Blackburn Rovers

Grabbi's prolific season with Ternana saw him attract the attention of various Serie A clubs, including Udinese and AC Milan. But apparently Luciano Moggi of Juventus, who had previously pressured Grabbi to change his agent and join GEA World with no success, made it impossible for Ciccio to play in Italy, so in 2001 he was signed by Blackburn Rovers for a record fee of £6.75 million in July 2001,[1] but due to injuries and personal reasons, he failed to repeat this progress, scoring just once in fourteen league games, his goal coming in a 1–0 win over Everton.[3] He scored once more before going on loan to Messina, in the FA Cup against Barnsley.[4] Leaving the club on loan meant he missed out on their victory in the 2002 League Cup Final. Grabbi's move to Blackburn is widely regarded as one of the worst transfers in the history of the Premier League.[5][6][7]

In the same interview, Grabbi stated that the only person who he became friends with in this time was Tugay Kerimoğlu.

Despite his unsuccessful spell at Blackburn Rovers, Grabbi still has a cult following with fans of the club.

During a loan spell back in Italy with Messina, he scored two goals in the final game of the season and saved Messina from relegation. Upon his return to England, he failed to reignite his form, and after a further 16 games and three goals (against Liverpool in the league,[8] CSKA Sofia in the UEFA Cup[9] and Walsall in the League Cup)[10] with Blackburn, who had in the meantime signed ex-Manchester United strikers Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, he was allowed to return to Italy permanently with Ancona in 2004.Red XN

Later career

After spending one year without a team, trying to recover from the injury caused by a rare form of foot disease (Leveraus Morb) which had afflicted him for the past three seasons, he joined Genoa of Serie C1/A in September 2005. With his new team, he gained promotion to Serie B on playoffs scoring 9 goals in 25 games.[1] Club president Enrico Preziosi decided then that Genoa did not need Grabbi anymore, so during the 2007 winter transfer window, Grabbi signed for Arezzo, still in Serie B, after having never made a single appearance in the first half of the season for Genoa. After relegation with Arezzo, scoring no goals, Grabbi signed a contract with AC Bellinzona, a team from the Swiss Challenge League (second division). Ciccio scored the winning goal (his first after more than one year) in the Swiss Cup game Bellinzona-Gossau: 2–1 .[1]

Grabbi was also directly involved in the Calciopoli scandal of summer 2006 as a victim: It was in fact only then that Ciccio could tell the media what Luciano Moggi had done to affect his career: after Ciccio Grabbi had refused to drop his agent in favour of Luciano Moggi's son, Moggi told him "you will never play football again, if not in my garden!" Grabbi was propriety of Juventus until he was sold to Ternana.

Coaching career

After retirement, Grabbi took on a coaching career, joining his former playing team Juventus as a youth coach in 2009.[11] Among all the players he trained as a youth coach from his early years in the Pulcini category, Grabbi also worked with Italian international Moise Kean.[12]

Honours

Club

Juventus[1]

Blackburn Rovers

References
  1. Stefano Bedeschi (15 August 2015). "Gli eroi in bianconero: Corrado GRABBI" (in Italian). Tutto Juve. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  2. "Grabbi, dagli anni '20 ai pulcini una dinastia in bianconero" (in Italian). repubblica.it. 18 September 2009.
  3. "Blackburn sink Everton". BBC. 22 September 2001. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
  4. "Blackburn dispatch Barnsley". BBC. 15 January 2002. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
  5. "Football Transfer Flops - the hall of shame, football's worst signings". Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 7 May 2008.
  6. "The Times & The Sunday Times".
  7. "Top 25 worst transfers? | Soccer Manager.com News". Archived from the original on 5 May 2008. Retrieved 7 May 2008.
  8. "Blackburn hold Liverpool". BBC. 28 August 2002. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
  9. "Rovers held by CSKA". BBC. 18 September 2002. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
  10. "Blackburn edge through". BBC. 5 November 2002. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
  11. "Grabbi, dagli anni '20 ai pulcini una dinastia in bianconero" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 18 September 2009. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  12. "Grabbi, il "papà calcistico" di Moise: maestro di Juve da tre generazioni" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. 15 April 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2021.

Websites
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