Luca Toni Varchetta Delle Cave, Cavaliere Ufficiale
OMRI (born May 26, 1977 in Pavullo nel Frignano,
Modena) is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer,
who plays for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga.
Something of a late bloomer, Toni has played for ten
clubs to date.
Toni started his professional career at Modena. This
was followed by a number of seasons spent around
Serie B and Serie C1 with teams such as Empoli,
Fiorenzuola and Lodigiani. After a Serie B season
with Treviso in 1999, he moved to Vicenza Calcio,
playing in Serie A for the first time. He then moved
to Brescia Calcio, playing for two seasons alongside
Roberto Baggio.
Toni made his debut for the Italian national team as
a substitute on August 18, 2004 in a friendly match
against Iceland. He scored his first international
goal in a World Cup Qualifying match against Norway
on September 4, 2004.
On November 17, Toni made his international start in
a friendly match against Finland. On June 11, 2005,
he captained the Italian squad for the first time in
his career in a friendly match against Ecuador
because of the absence of current captain Fabio
Cannavaro and other experienced players. On
September 7, Toni scored his first international
hat-trick in a 4–1 victory against Belarus in a 2006
World Cup qualifying match.
Toni was selected to Italy's 2006 World Cup squad,
and scored two goals in the quarter-finals against
Ukraine on June 30, his only goals of the
tournament. In the final against France, he hit the
crossbar with a powerful header and later netted
another header although the goal was disallowed as
the attempt was ruled offside.
Toni scored two goals in Italy's 2–0 win over
Scotland in a Euro 2008 qualifier. Due to the
aforementioned foot surgery, he missed Italy's next
two qualifiers against the Faroe Islands and
Lithuania. He returned to the qualification games
against Georgia, and assisted Fabio Grosso, who
scored the final result (2–0). On the November 17,
2007, Toni struck in the first minute of a 2–1
qualifier win over Scotland at Hampden Park, which
secured Italy's place at the final stages. Four days
later, he scored the second goal against the Faroe
Islands, as Italy closed with a 3–1 win.
