Marco Negri (born 27 October 1970) is an Italian former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a striker for

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is ...

Ternana Ternana Calcio, commonly referred to as Ternana, is an Italian football club based in Terni, Umbria. The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana has twice played in Serie A (in the 1972–73 and 1974–75 seas ...

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

, Rangers,

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a th ...

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

and

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

Career

Early career in Italy and breakthrough with Perugia

Negri was born in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

on 27 October 1970. He began his career during the 1988–89 season with

, making three appearances, and later also made five more for the club during the 1990–91 season. He spent the 1989–90

Serie C2 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

season with

, collecting 27 appearances. During the 1991–92 season, he won the

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

title with Ternana, scoring five goals in 32 appearances, and helped the club earn promotion to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

. He spent the following season with

, however, managing only four goals in 25 appearances. In 1993, he joined

in Serie C1, scoring 8 goals in 24 appearances, before later returning to Cosenza the following year, where he experienced his best season yet, scoring 19 goals in 34 appearances. He later made his breakthrough with

during the

1995–96 Serie B The Serie B 1995–96 was the sixty-fourth tournament of this competition played in Italy since its creation. Teams Bologna, Pistoiese, Reggina and Avellino had been promoted from Serie C, while Genoa, Foggia, Reggiana and Brescia had been r ...

season, scoring 18 goals and helping the club achieve promotion to the Italian top flight. He made his

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

debut the following season, also scoring his first goal in the top flight, in a 1–0 home win over

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

. Despite his impressive tally of 15 goals in the league for the club during the 1996–97 season, he could not prevent the side from facing relegation, however, although his performances caught the attention of other clubs.

Rangers

Rangers manager

Walter Smith Walter Ferguson Smith (24 February 1948 – 26 October 2021) was a Scottish association football player, manager and director, primarily associated with his two spells as manager of Glasgow club Rangers. A defender, Smith's playing car ...

signed Negri from Perugia for £3.5 million in 1997. He was rewarded with instant success, as Negri scored 23 goals in his first ten league games, including all five goals in a 5–1 win over

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

in the second league game of the season on 23 August 1997 at

Ibrox Stadium Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox area of Glasgow, Scotland. The home of Rangers Football Club, Ibrox is the third largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated capacity of . O ...

, as well as his side's only goal in a 1–1 draw against

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

Celtic Park Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is also ...

. His low-key celebrations were noteworthy – often he felt the need only to exchange a handshake with other players and showed little exuberance. Negri easily topped the goalscoring charts in that first campaign, with 32 league goals. His scoring run was brought to an end on suffering a serious eye injury to his retina, attributed to a

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

match with teammate

Sergio Porrini Sergio Porrini (; born 8 November 1968) is an Italian football coach and former player. A tenacious, reliable, and determined defender, he was known for his tactical versatility and work-rate, as he was capable of playing both as a full-back a ...

. Back training after his eye injury, Negri suffered from further injuries. Following his return to action, he only scored twice and won two of his next 10 league games with the side, as Celtic prevented Rangers from winning a tenth consecutive league title. After that first season Negri only played three more first team games, and he sat out the whole of one campaign. Rangers then loaned him to

in 1999 and the striker returned to Ibrox injured. Eventually he was sold to his former club Bologna, in February 2001, having made only 40 appearances in all competitions for the Scottish side.

Later career

After his time with Bologna, Negri had a spell with

, and subsequently dropped down into

with

, scoring four goals in first three appearances, but they released him after only a few months following his declining performances. In 2004, the player had a trial at

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

, although he was not offered a contract. He later returned to Perugia, but only made three appearances for the club in Serie B. He eventually retired in 2005 to dedicate himself to his family.

References

External links

*
Sporting Heroes Profile

1997-98 Goals for Rangers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Negri, Marco 1970 births AC Perugia Calcio players US Livorno 1915 players Men's association football forwards Bologna FC 1909 players Cagliari Calcio players Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Italian expatriate men's footballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Italian men's footballers Living people Cosenza Calcio 1914 players Novara FC players Rangers F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Premier League players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players LR Vicenza players Scottish league football top scorers Ternana Calcio players Udinese Calcio players Footballers from Milan