Luca Toni

Luca Toni (born May 26, 1977 in Pavullo nel Frignano, Modena) is an Italian, World Cup winning, football player. He plays as a striker for ACF Fiorentina and the Italian national team.

He started his professional career at Modena in 1994.

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 and played for two seasons along-side Roberto Baggio.

He joined Palermo in 2003 and aided the team to win Serie B by scoring thirty goals during the season, consequently gaining his first cap for the national team. In the following season, he scored twenty goals.

In July 2005, he was transferred by Palermo owner, Maurizio Zamparini, to Fiorentina for €10m.

On September 7, 2005, Toni scored a hat-trick for the Italian national team in a 2006 World Cup Qualifying match against Belarus (which Italy won 4-1).

On May 14 2006 Toni scored his 31st goal of the 2005/2006 season and in doing so, secured the 2005/2006 Capocannonieri. It is the first time since the 1957/1958 season that a player has scored more than 30 goals in Serie A. Despite only finishing third top scorer in European football with 31 goals in Serie A with Fiorentina, behind Klaas Jan Huntelaar of Ajax Amsterdam and Kris Boyd of , Toni collected the European Golden Boot, due to multipliers based on the quality of the league. Toni's goal tally has eclipsed the previous club record of 26 in one season in the top flight, held by Fiorentina legends Gabriel Batistuta and Kurt Hamrin.

Luca Toni helped Fiorentina qualify for the UEFA Champions League 2006/07 when his team ended the 2005/06 season with a fourth place finish, however he may not remain at the club due to Fiora's relegation to Serie B, due to match-fixing, and repeated interest from such other clubs as Intenazionale and AC Milan.

On June 30, 2006, Toni scored two goals in the 2006 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals against Ukraine; these were his only goals in the whole tournament. England coach, Sven Goran Eriksson had labelled Toni as Italy's player to watch out for before the tournament (check FourFourTwo issue 143) and bookmakers had made him 33-1 to win the Golden Boot.

Luca Toni is also known for his goal celebration, which consists of stretching his 5 fingers of his right hand and rotating them left and right next to his right ear. Said to have originated in Palermo, it basically means "Do you understand?" or "Did you see what I just did?".

He is currently dating Italian model, Marta Cecchetto, his girlfriend for over eight years.

After Fiorentina's enforced relegation to Serie B he has been linked with a move to Newcastle United F.C. as a replacement for Alan Shearer.

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