Fall from Grace Stefano Fiore

Fall from Grace: Stefano Fiore

Stefano Fiore is one of the unsung heroes of Italian national team in the millennium era where he was a key cog in the Azzurri side which reached the finals of Euro 2000.

Fiore played as an attacking midfielder or a winger. He was versatile enough to play anywhere behind the striker. 

He was in his prime from 1999-2004 where he was one of the best attackers in Italy.

Stefano rose to fame in 1999 when he played for Udinese. He was capable of scoring from midfield which was very rare in those days. He had a splendid two years at Udinese before he switched to Lazio.

Lazio is where he blossomed after struggling for initial years under Alberto Zaccheroni but after Zaccheroni got sacked, he was a different player altogether. Roberto Mancini resurrected his career as Fiore was an inspirational leader at Lazio.

He guided them to a Coppa Italia victory in 2003-04 which is the high point of his club career. Lazio had financial troubles which led him being sold to Valencia. From here on he started to lose his form as he failed to adjust with the life in Spain.

He was loaned to series of Italian clubs in order to get some minutes of first team football but he failed to get back his form as he showed patches of his brilliance. In 2007, he was sold to Serie B club A.C. Mantova, where he again failed to impress.

Later on, he moved to third tier club Cosenza, where he struggled to get into starting the XI. This was a nail in the coffin for the erstwhile champion Italian international. A Fall From Grace Indeed!