With the arrival of Ciro Immobile at Paris FC, French football is offered an Italian parenthesis, almost romantic. That of a 35-year-old center forward nourished by the culture of goal. The paradoxical man whose name seems to prohibit movement when his entire life has consisted of evading marking. This striker has made the feat his routine, accomplishing what others are content to imagine: the art of shaking the nets, tirelessly.
Launched at Juventus in Serie A in March 2009, the neo-Parisian, father of 3 children, has not yet known the straight path of the gifted. The friend of Marco Verratti, his teammate at Pescara during a magical season in Serie B in 2011-2012, was first built in the detour. Lent, wandered around, sometimes misunderstood.
In Dortmund in 2014, the native of Torre Annunziata, very close to Naples, arrived amidst the commotion of a legacy: Robert Lewandowski had just signed for Bayern, and the Italian found himself tasked with succeeding the irreplaceable, in vertical football, Jürgen Klopp, the current global director of football at Red Bull (shareholder of Paris FC). A short season in the Ruhr and then off to Andalusia.
In Seville, where he was on loan, the experience was too brief to leave a deep mark. Immobile has therefore long been a talent in transit, a scorer searching for his territory. As if his football, so instinctive, so linked to collective benchmarks, had needed a familiar setting to fully flourish.
He found the theater of his dreams at Lazio from the summer of 2016 and then changed dimension. In Rome, he ceases to be an attacker among others. The darling of the Curva Nord de l’Olimpico, he becomes a figure, almost a symbol. Four times top scorer (top scorer) in Serie A, top scorer in the history of the Roman club with 207 goals ahead of legend Silvio Piola, he stacks up full seasons and records with metronome regularity.
“I am not a surface center forward”
In 2019-2020, he even touched the Holy Grail: 36 league goals, a historic peak in Serie A, tied with Gonzalo Higuaín (in 2016 with Naples), and a European Golden Shoe. Only Luca Toni and Francesco Totti, before him, had offered this supreme individual trophy to Italy. Immobile joins this discreet pantheon of transalpine scorers who left their mark on their era without necessarily seeking the spotlight.
But to reduce Immobile to a simple predator would be to betray what he claims about himself: an attacker who moves, reads, emerges, very skilful in front of goal thanks to his heading and interesting technical ease. In an interview with France Football in 2020, he spoke about his style of play, having learned from David Trezeguet, who worked with the Bianconeri in 2009-2010.
“I’m atypical, I’m not a box center forward or a supporting striker. I don’t like to stay in front, in the middle, I like to move on the front of the attack. Consequently, people talk to me more about Paolo Rossi, Toto Schillaci, another generation.”
If he is therefore not a fixed point, despite his size (1.85 m, 80 kg), he says that he has “always focused everything on timing and mastery of space” and that he always trains “to make the right call, to [se] throw in the meantime, [se] create space, even when the defender does not [le] don’t let [se] return “. “Simple football”, as he sums it up.
His club career is also part of a dense international trajectory. Finalist of the Euro Espoirs in 2013, present at the 2014 World Cup, at Euro 2016, he goes through several generations of the Nazionale before finally reaching the top in 2021, European champion with Italy against England (1-1, 3 tab to 2).
In his underwear on the Wembley lawn
Discreet and replaced before the hour mark in the final by Berardi, Ciro Immobile made up for it during the post-match celebrations. When the transalpine players threw themselves flat on their stomachs in front of their stands to commune with the fans, his shorts gave way. Result: Laziale, scorer of two goals during the tournament, found himself in his underwear in the middle of Wembley Stadium, to the great amusement of the public.
In total he has 57 caps, 17 goals, and holds a place in the recent history of Italian football. Not always the most flamboyant icon, but a figure of continuity, professionalism, longevity.
“It was a beautiful love story. I took this decision with the greatest serenity, but I leave a great Lazio.” This July 12, 2024, Immobile gives this emotional speech outside Terminal 3 at Fiumicino airport before leaving for Istanbul and starting a season without too much fanfare with Besiktas. Far from Italy, far from his benchmarks, he nevertheless proves that he remains a credible finisher: 19 goals in 41 matches during the 2024-2025 financial year.
The machine is no longer as voracious, but it has not yet seized up. This season, on the other hand, the body has recalled its law: victim of a strain on the femoral muscle of the right thigh upon his arrival in Bologna, slowed down by three months of absence, he only played six matches in the league (191 minutes in total) under his new colors and only one on January 25 as a starter (0 goals). At his advanced age, it’s no longer an accident, it’s a signal.
This is where Paris FC’s bet lies. An assumed, almost romantic bet. Immobile is necessarily no longer the man of Lazio’s disproportionate seasons, the one who transformed each race into a threat. The Parisian club is not recruiting just a name, but an experience, an intelligence of movement, a memory of the goal.
Paris FC probably does not expect him to carry the attack alone on his shoulders. He hopes for precious goals, right gestures, evenings where the presence of a great player changes the flow of a match. Immobile arrives in Paris with his records, his formative wanderings, his years of Roman glory and his recent fragilities.
It invites itself into the French landscape with a story, more than with a promise. And sometimes, in the construction of a project, it is these stories that change a locker room, an audience, a season.
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