Ciro Immobile, born in Torre Annunziata on February 20, 1990, is an Italian professional footballer and plays as striker for Lazio and for the Italian national team. He is captain and currently Lazio's all-time highest goalscorer.
Numbers talk:
Player who has scored most goals for Lazio in all official competitions
Player who has scored most goals for Lazio in Serie A
Player who has scored most goals for Lazio in UEFA Cup/Europa League
Player who has scored most goals for Lazio in UEFA competitions
Lazio player, along with Beppe Signori, who has been Serie A top scorer most times
One of three players to have won the trophy for top Serie A scorer with two different teams (the others being Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Luca Toni)
Player, together with Gonzalo Higuain, to have scored most goals in a season in Serie A
First Italian Serie A player to have scored at least 25 league goals three times. The other two were foreigners Gunnar Nordhal and Istvan Nyers
Player in activity with most goals scored in Serie A
We could stop here, but there is a bio to write.
Ciro Immobile was born in Torre Annunziata near Naples on February 20 1990. He started his career in the youth teams of Salernitana but he did not stand out. He then moved to play for Sorrento and scored 30 goals in the Allievi (14-16 year olds). Juventus set their eyes on him and at 17 he joined the Bianconeri. Juve won the prestigious Viareggio Tournament in 2009 thanks to an Immobile double in the final. He debuted in Serie A on March 14 2009 coming on for Alessandro Del Piero in injury time at the end of Juventus Bologna 4-1. Later on in the year in November he also debuted in the Champions League against Bordeaux. He would end up with four appearances that season in all competitions.
In July 2010 he signed for Siena in Serie B on loan but he did not play much so in January he moved to Grosseto where he played a little more but only scored one goal. The big life changer for Ciro took place in the summer of 2011 when he signed for Pescara, again on loan. Together with future greats Marco Verratti and Lorenzo Insigne, and under the guidance of Zdenek Zeman, they took Pescara back to Serie A and won the championship. Immobile was Serie B top scorer with 28 goals.
In the summer of 2012 Genoa bought half of Immobile and Ciro moved to Liguria. Not a good season for him: 34 league appearances but only 5 goals. At the end of the campionato, Juventus re-acquired the other half and sold it to Torino. Together with his attacking partner Alessio Cerci and under the guidance of Gian Piero Ventura, Torino reached a Europa League qualification and Immobile scored 22 goals, top Serie A scorer.
Torino purchased the other half of Immobile and sold him to Borussia Dortmund. He played 34 games with 10 goals (4 in Champions League) in a difficult season for the Germans. He also had a few problems getting used to the new way of life. In the summer of 2015 he was loaned to Sevilla but in six months he played just 15 games (four goals) and had problems with the manager. For the remaining part of the season he was loaned back to Torino but did not leave a significant mark.
In July 2016 he signed for Lazio. On a personal note, I had wanted this to happen since Ciro’s Pescara days. He may not be pretty to watch but he has the gift of often being in the right place at the right time and scores goals. He just had to find the right kind of environment and club which could allow him to express himself at his best. Lazio was the right club and Ciro Immobile became King. With the Biancocelesti he has won a Coppa Italia (2018-19) and two Super Coppas (2017 and 2019), scoring with an amazing consistency. Ciro scores in every possible way: headers, volleys, shots from outside the box, left or right foot. The upcoming season will be his eighth for Lazio and he is bound to score a lot more. There have only been a couple of years in which he has not scored more than 20 goals and that has been due to injuries. In 2020 Immobile won the Golden Boot an award given each season to the leading goal scorer in league matches from the top division of a European national league
Immobile has also been very useful for the Nazionale though he has not scored as much. But, as many Lazio fans know, the whole game must revolve around Ciro for him to be effective. Even Maurizio Sarri re-adapted his tactics to exploit this goal-scoring machine. This is yet to happen in Nazionale and particularly by Roberto Mancini. Despite this Ciro has scored 15 goals for Italy and won a European Nations Cup. He is also the media’s favourite scapegoat for whenever something goes wrong, just like Giorgio Chinaglia was back in the 1970s.
But for the Lazio fans he is our captain, our champion and our King.
Lazio Career (updated April 3, 2024)
Season | Total games (Goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Europa League | Conference League | Super Coppa |
2016-17 | 41 (26) | 36 (23) | 5 (3) | - | - | ​ | - |
2017-18 | 47 (41) | 33 (29) | 4 (2) | - | 9 (8) | ​ | 1 (2) |
2018-19 | 46 (19) | 36 (15) | 5 (3) | - | 5 (1) | ​ | - |
2019-20 | 44 (39) | 37 (36) | 2 (1) | - | 4 (2) | ​ | 1 |
2020-21 | 41 (25) | 35 (20) | 1 | 5 (5) | - | ​ | - |
2021-22 | 40 (32) | 31 (27) | 2 (1) | - | 7 (4) | ​ | - |
2022-23 | 38 (14) | 31 (12) | 1 | - | 4 (1) | 2 (1) | - |
2023-24 | 37 (10) | 26 (6) | 2 | 8 (4) | - | - | 1 |
Total | 334 (207) | 265 (167) | 22 (10) | 13 (9) | 29 (16) | 2 (1) | 3 (2) |
Sources