“Come with me on the back of the stars“. It is the invitation of the singer of the Attention love, Austrian musical group. A place that knows well, the back of the stars, the lead singer of the group: Toni “double pack” upholsteryhaving lived there practically the entire previous career, the one from soccer player. Born in Austriapure Viennese, son of art: even his father who is called like him, Anton, was a footballer, already as a kid he shows good skills. He has a great physique but he is fast and has good technique: he starts in the youth teams ofAustria Vienna and immediately scores avalanche of goals. At 18 he tries it in the professionalism: filmed on loan at Simmering in 82 contributes with 8 goals in 13 games to promotion in the Bundesliga club’s Austrian. Obviously Austria Vienna doesn’t think twice about bringing him back home and setting him up as a starter since he was 19: and he responds by doing what he knows how to do, scoring 11 goals in his first season and excellent performances also in the european cupswith 5 goals in the Cup Winners’ Cup for the Viola semifinalslost to the Real Madrid.
He will do it again, winning three championships with Austria Vienna in which he is top scorer in the championship three times, and oh well that the Austrian Bundesliga is not much, but scoring 24, 33 and 39 goals per season is not for everyone. A crescendo to which the expert also contributes Prohaskawhich after the experience in Italiareturned to Austria Vienna explains to that boy that if he wants to become someone even in football that matters he must leave nightclubs e nightclub. Works. Those 39 centers, however, are one of the many “backs” of the stars of the career by Toni: obviously there are many, but they are not enough to break the record of Krankl at home nor to win the golden shoeat the time an award given without too many frills on coefficients and difficulties and won that season by the Romanian Bankruptcy from the Dinamo Bucharest who scores 42 goals. Someone then realized that 21 of the 42 goals scored by Camataru had arrived in just one month: something that in the Romania of Ceausescu was at least suspicious and they revoked the Romanian’s title. Meanwhile the Tour di Radice is looking for a center forward after selling Kieft to Psv: the dream is Bald but the call of the Napoli by Maradona is too strong, and then the attention of the grenades moves up Mark Hughes of Barcelona. Juve had bet on the Welshman Ian RushToro would have done the same with Hughes: but despite the modest season played by the Welshman in Catalonia, the Blaugrana they shoot too high. And then on input by Root the managing director From Finis together with the dg Bonetto fly from Barcelona to vienna closing the deal and carrying pad in grenade for a figure close to two billion lire.
The beginning is fabulous: he shows up with 4 goals in Italian Cupthen scores on debut ad Avellino and in the second championship he makes 3 at Sampdoria, one more beautiful than the other. He puts everything into it: cunning, power, speed…and the hat-trick comes in front of a marker still remembered today as the toughest ever to face, Pietro Verhovod. On the sixth day a brace at Fiorentina and Toni is top scorer in Serie A. Granata fans rename him “Golster” and CEO De Finis rejoices: “It’s easy to say: he’s Austrian. He is Austrian and Austrian, this time we hope we have taken the one who scores goals ”. At the end of the first leg there will be seven goals: in the second leg Toni will not repeat himself, he will only score two more goals, one Pescara and one in a derby loss against the Juventus. In the Italian Cup, on the other hand, he will score a very important goal at the Napoli at the San Paolo, against Maradona, which will be worth the semifinals against Juventus, victorious, with the final against Sampdoria however lost. A year of 14 goals and a player who is certainly anything but poor will not be enough for confirmation: he will be sold to Seville hastily and for the same amount paid to take it, while the grenade will arrive Brazilian Muller.
In Andalusia Toni starts slowly, with 9 goals in the first season, but then in the next he scores 33 goals, and doesn’t become Pichichi because once again it has the reverse side of the stars in destiny: the face of the star that shines the most in this case is that of Hugo Sanchez of Real Madrid. In any case, no one has ever scored so much in a championship with a Sevilla shirt. In break with the technician Singer moves to Logroneswhere he played an excellent season finished in tenth place and with the red and white team reaching the quarterfinals in Copa del Rey: Toni scores 14 league goals and 8 in the cup. 14 as the goals he will score the following year against Rayo Vallecano, also in this case leading the team to safety. After wandering between Italy and Spain finds stability in Germany: the Coloniawhere his ability to score goals and often shotguns deserves his nickname Toni “double pack”. He remains five years in the German club culminating in 1998 in relegation. It is also the year of the World Cup: now 34, he finds himself captain of Austria in a very difficult group against Italiail Chile by Zamorano and Salas and the Cameroon of Mboma, Eto’o and Song’o. Toni succeeds in his goal: to stamp the tag even in a World Cup, something he hadn’t managed to do eight years earlier in Italy. Against Cameroon, trailing 1-0 after an incredible goal by Njanka he pounces on a cross from a corner and throws it inside. Austria will still be eliminated. He still plays two years in Germany, al Moechenglabadchstill going into double digits and then ending his career at Salzburg in 2001. From then until today, at the age of 59 which he will turn in a few days, he divides himself between the career of trainer and that of singer of the Attention love: moderate success in both cases, with several records sold and successes at the helm of the Victoria Vienna in the minor leagues…always on the back of the stars then.
