Tommaso Rocchi

Tommaso Rocchi

Personal information
Date of birth	September 19, 1977 (1977-09-19)
Place of birth	Venice, Italy
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Lazio
Number	9
Youth career
1986–1993	Venezia
1994–1996	Juventus
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1995–1996	Juventus	0	(0)
1996–1997	Pro Patria	27	(6)
1997	Fermana	4	(0)
1997–1998	Saronno	28	(10)
1998–2000	Como	62	(20)
2000–2001	Treviso	37	(8)
2001–2004	Empoli	104	(28)
2004–	Lazio	232	(82)
National team‡
2006–2007	Italy	3	(0)
2008	Olympic Italy	2	(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of February 5, 2012. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of August 10, 2008

Tommaso Rocchi (Italian pronunciation: [tomˈmazo ˈrɔkki]; born 19 September 1977 in Venice) is an Italian footballer who is the current captain of Serie A club Lazio. With 105 goals for Lazio, he is the club's fifth highest goalscorer of all time, three behind Bruno Giordano. Rocchi has also been capped three times for the Italian national team and captained his nation at the 2008 Olympic Games.

Career

Club

Early years

Rocchi began playing football in his home city of Venice and joined the youth ranks of Venezia at nine years of age. He came up through the ranks in the Venezia junior system before signing for giants Juventus in 1994. Rocchi won the Primavera title with the Turin club that year before moving up to the first team for the 1995–96 season, in which the bianconeri claimed the Champions League title. He did not make any first team appearances however, and soon left the club.

From then on, Rocchi played Serie C football, playing in 121 matches and scoring 36 goals for Pro Patria, Fermana, Saronno and Como. He managed to get a chance in Serie B with Treviso.

Empoli

From Treviso, Rocchi moved to Tuscany with Empoli, also in Serie B at the time. With Empoli, Rocchi made over 100 appearances, and scored a total of 29 goals, 16 of which came in Serie A, where Rocchi had put in some decent performances during the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons. He scored a winner against Inter, on January 18, 2004, and a week later he scored a hattrick against original club Juventus in a 3–3 draw.

Lazio

These performances earned Rocchi a €4M move to Lazio for the 2004–05 season.

Rocchi's first goal of the championship for Lazio came on 22 September 2004 against Brescia at the Stadio Mario Rigamonti in a 2–0 win. His finest individual performance of the season was a hattrick against Lecce, and Rocchi ended a successful debut season with 13 goals in 35 league appearances. He also scored twice in the UEFA Cup, his first appearance in European competition. Most significantly however, Rocchi scored the third goal in a 3–1 Derby della Capitale win, the first of these clashes in which he played.

It was during this time that Rocchi began to develop a partnership with teammate Paolo Di Canio. Often creating assists for each other, Rocchi and Di Canio had a good relationship both on and off the field. Di Canio left Lazio in 2006, leaving Rocchi as the major star striker at the club.

Rocchi also had a strong partnership with Macedonian forward Goran Pandev. Often Pandev would play in the hole behind Rocchi, but they were also able to play up front together with a central attacking midfielder behind. Between them, they were Lazio's top goalscorers for three seasons consecutively. A positive 2005–06 season saw Rocchi score a personal best 16 league goals as Lazio finished sixth, a place which was later taken away from them due to the Calciopoli scandal. At first relegation to Serie B was the verdict, but Lazio were soon reinstated to the top flight.

Beginning the 2006–07 season with an eleven-point deduction, a relegation battle appeared on the cards for Lazio, and a slow start did nothing to help the situation. However, the team's form soon improved, and the deduction was reduced to three, making a tilt at a UEFA Champions League place an unlikely yet possible goal. Rocchi backed up his 16 goal haul yet again, as Lazio finished third and qualified for Europe's premier club competition.

The 2007–08 season saw Rocchi make his personal debut in the UEFA Champions League, where he scored a crucial winning goal against Werder Bremen. This season he ended the campaign with 14 Serie A goals. He spent much of the year as captain of Lazio, deputizing for the often injured Luciano Zauri. On February 20, 2008, Rocchi renewed his contract, extending the deal by five years. This contract extension would run until 2013, and effectively ensure Rocchi would remain at the club for the remainder of his career. On March 19, 2008, Rocchi scored his fourth goal in the Derby della Capitale in a 3–2 victory against A.S. Roma.

From a personal perspective, 2008–09 was a poor season for Rocchi. After missing the first two months of the season due to an injury suffered while on international duty at the 2008 Beijing Games, Rocchi never reached his usual goalscoring form, finishing with just 9 for the season; his lowest tally in six years. However, the club won their fifth Coppa Italia title, defeating Sampdoria in a penalty shootout. Rocchi suffered the indignity of being the only Lazio player to fail to convert his spot kick. This season was also his first as the official team captain, after the departure of Zauri to Fiorentina.

Rocchi receives the Coppa Italia trophy from Giorgio Napolitano.

At the end of the 2008–09 season, having made over 200 appearances in the Lazio shirt, and having scored 83 goals, Rocchi declared his target was to join an exclusive list of players to have scored 100 goals for the club. This mark had only previously been reached by four players, Silvio Piola, Giuseppe Signori, Bruno Giordano and Giorgio Chinaglia. Rocchi decided to change his number 18 shirt for the number 9, which had previously been worn by all of those four, aside from Signori.

International career

Rocchi has represented Italy at youth level several times.

In August 2006, following Italy's fourth FIFA World Cup title, new Azzurri boss Roberto Donadoni called Rocchi up to the squad as a reward for his exceptional scoring record in Serie A.

He made his debut against Croatia in the 2–0 loss at 29 years of age. Rocchi played two more matches for the national team on the road to Euro 2008 but did not make the squad for the final tournament.

He was selected as the only overage player in Pierluigi Casiraghi's Olympic team to play at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He scored against South Korea on August 10.

He has received the calcionado (awarded for Serie A's outstanding player) on two occasions, in 2004 and 2007

Statistics

Updated until February 5, 2012

Season	Club	League			National cups			Continental cups			Total
		Comp	Apps	Goals	Comp	Apps	Goals	Comp	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1995–96	Juventus	A	0	0	CI	0	0	CL	0	0	0	0
1996–97	Pro Patria	C2	27	6	CI	0	0	–	–	–	27	6
1997–98	Fermana	C1	4	0	CI	0	0	–	–	–	4	0
Oct. 1997	Saronno	C1	28	10	CI	0	0	–	–	–	28	10
1998–99	Como	C1	32	11	CI	0	0	–	–	–	32	11
1999–00		C1	30	9	CI	5	4	–	–	–	35	13
Total Como			62	20		5	4		–	–	67	24
2000–01	Treviso	B	37	8	CI	1	0	–	–	–	38	8
2001–02	Empoli	B	37	11	CI	4	1	–	–	–	41	12
2002–03		A	34	6	CI	7	1	–	–	–	41	7
2003–04		A	33	11	CI	2	0	–	–	–	35	11
Aug. 2004		B	0	0	CI	1	0	–	–	–	1	0
Total Empoli			104	28		14	2		–	–	118	30
2004–05	Lazio	A	35	13	CI	1	2	UC	5	2	41	17
2005–06		A	37	16	CI	1	0	IC	3	1	41	17
2006–07		A	36	16	CI	3	3	–	–	–	39	19
2007–08		A	36	14	CI	4	1	CL	8	4	48	19
2008–09		A	27	9	CI	5	2	–	–	–	32	11
2009–10		A	32	6	CI + SI	2 + 1	1 + 1	EL	5	2	40	10
2010–11		A	18	3	CI	2	0	–	–	–	20	3
2011–12		A	11	5	CI	2	1	EL	7	3	20	9
Total Lazio			232	82		21	11		28	12	281	105
Total Serie A			299	99
Total Career			494	154		41	17		28	12	563	183

Honours

Lazio

• Coppa Italia: 1 (2008–09)
• Supercoppa Italiana: 1 (2009)

External links

• Tommaso Rocchi at FIGC.it