Christian Riganò (born 25 May 1974) is an Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former professional footballer who played as a striker.

Career

Early career

Riganò was born in

Lipari Lipari (; ) is a ''comune'' including six of seven islands of the Aeolian Islands (Lipari, Vulcano, Panarea, Stromboli, Filicudi and Alicudi) and it is located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northern coast of Sicily, Southern Italy; it is ...

Province of Messina The province of Messina (; ) was a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, Italy. Its capital was the city of Messina. It was replaced by the Metropolitan City of Messina. Geography Territory It had an area of , ...

. A former bricklayer, he started his career with amateur team Lipari, where he gained a reputation of a prolific striker. In 1997, he moved to then

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

team

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

, but he failed to impress there. This was followed by two season with Igea Virtus, another Serie D team, and 28 goals with the Sicilian side.

Taranto

In 2000, at the age of 26, Riganò finally entered into professional football with

Taranto Taranto (; ; previously called Tarent in English) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Taranto, serving as an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base. Founded by Spartans ...

, being instrumental in the ''rossoblus promotion in their first season, and an impressive

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

campaign the following year, being crowned Serie C1's topscorer with 27 goals in the 2001–02 season, and narrowly missing out on promotion to Serie B.

Florentia

In 2002, Riganò joined Florentia Viola of

Serie C2 Serie C2 was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Serie C. The league menaging t ...

, and scored a personal record of 30 goals in 32 matches, earning the title of top-scorer in the league once again and helping Fiorentina to obtain promotion. During the 2003–04 season, he scored 23

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie 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 season. It had b ...

goals in 44 matches, helping Fiorentina to win promotion to

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

and earning his Serie A debut at the age of 30 the following season. During the 2005–06 winter transfer window, he was loaned to

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...

with little success.

Messina

In August 2006 Riganò moved to

, making a very impressive season, scoring 19 goals in 26 appearances. He finished third on the top scorer chart in Serie A during the 2006–07 season, despite having sustained an injury in January which saw him miss action for three months.

Levante and loans

In August 2007 Riganò signed for

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 6 September 1909, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025– ...

but scored only four goals in 13 matches during his six-month stay with the Spanish side (three of which came in a hat-trick against

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

, making him the second Italian player after

Christian Vieri Christian Vieri (; born 12 July 1973), commonly known as Bobo Vieri, is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre forward. Having been born in Italy, Vieri moved with his family to Australia as a child, before returning ...

to score a hat-trick in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

), being then loaned out to

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

during the January transfer window. He was released by Levante after the Valencian club went relegated to

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

Later years

Free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

Riganò joined

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into ...

club Ternana on 31 August 2008. His time at Ternana however proved to be disappointing, as Riganò played only a handful of matches, being then excluded from the first team on November. On 2 February 2009 Riganò accepted a permanent move to Cremonese, another

club, where he re-joined Emiliano Mondonico, his former head coach at

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

. He successively left Cremonese at the end of the season, and signed with Italian club San Frediano Rondinella S.S., the second team of Florence.

Style of play

A large and tall striker who excelled in the air, Riganò was neither fast nor particularly powerful, but was known for his opportunism, anticipation, heading accuracy and eye for goal, despite his poor work-rate and struggles with fitness and weight-gain in his later career; due to his prolific goalscoring and place of birth, he earned the nicknames ''il bomber di Lipari'' and ''Riga-Gol''. A former defender, he was a well-rounded forward, who possessed excellent movement, timing, and positional sense, which made him a difficult player to mark. Usually deployed as a centre-forward, he was also capable of using his physical strength and technical skills to hold up the ball for his team-mates when playing with his back to goal, and of providing them with assists in addition to scoring goals himself, and was an accurate penalty taker.

Honours

Club

;Taranto *

: 2000–01 ;Florentia Viola *

: 2002–03

Individual

Top-scorer: 2001–02 (27 goals) *

Top-scorer 2002–03 (30 goals) * Fiorentina Hall of Fame

References

External links

Gazzetta.it career profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigano, Christian 1974 births Living people People from Lipari Footballers from the Metropolitan City of Messina Men's association football forwards Italian men's footballers ASD Nuova Igea Virtus players Taranto FC 1927 players ACF Fiorentina players Empoli FC players ACR Messina players Levante UD footballers Siena FC SSD players Ternana Calcio players US Cremonese players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players La Liga players Italian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Italian expatriate sportspeople in Spain