Luca Toni

Early career

Toni started his professional career at Modena. This was followed by a number of seasons spent around Serie B and Serie C1 with teams such as Empoli, Fiorenzuola, and Lodigiani. After a Serie B season with Treviso in 1999, he moved to Vicenza, playing in Serie A for the first time. He then moved to Brescia, playing for two seasons under manager Carlo Mazzone, alongside Roberto Baggio and Pep Guardiola.

Palermo

In 2003, he agreed to join ambitious Serie B club Palermo, being one of the main factors behind the winning team campaign that brought the Rosanero back to Serie A after over 30 years, thanks to a record 30 goals scored during the season. He consequently gained his first cap for the Italy national team in a friendly match 18 August 2004 lost 2–0 to Iceland in Reykjavík, which also marked Marcello Lippi's debut at the helm of the Azzurri. In the following season, Toni confirmed his prolificity by scoring 20 goals in Palermo's first Serie A campaign, leading the Sicilian club to a historical first qualification to the UEFA Cup.

Fiorentina

Toni's move to Fiorentina was marked by controversy as Palermo fans dubbed him a traitor for his departure. I Viola paid €10 million to sign him. During his first season in Florence he scored 31 goals, only five shy of the single season record by one player. This was the first time in 50 years that a Serie A player had scored 30 or more goals in the league, a feat which cemented his status as…

Toni scored 16 goals in 47 appearances for the Italy national team. He received his first international call-up in August 2004 under manager Marcello Lippi, and subsequently made his debut for the Italy national team as a substitute on 18 August 2004, in a 2–0 friendly defeat against Iceland. He scored his first international goal on 4 September 2004, after coming off the bench in a 2–1 home win against Norway, in a World Cup Qualifying match. On 17 November, Toni made his first international start in a 1–0 friendly home win over Finland. On 11 June 2005, he captained the Italian squad for the first time in his career in a friendly match in New York against Ecuador, due to the absence of Fabio Cannavaro and other experienced players; he scored Italy's only goal in the eventual 1–1 draw. On 7 September, Toni scored his first international hat-trick in a 4–1 victory against Belarus in a 2006 World Cup qualifying match, becoming the first Fiorentina player ever to do so.

Toni was selected to Italy's 23-man 2006 World Cup squad, and was given the number 9 shirt. In Italy's opening match against Ghana, he hit the crossbar as Italy won 2–0, and he later scored two goals in the quarter-finals against Ukraine on 30 June, his only goals of the tournament, as Italy won 3–0 to advance to the semi-finals against the hosts Germany. In the final against France, he hit the crossbar with a powerful header and later netted another header, although the goal was disallowed as the attempt was…

A prolific goal-scorer, Toni was a traditional centre-forward, who excelled in the air and acrobatically; although in his youth he was known for his attacking movement, which allowed him to play anywhere along the front-line or off of his teammates, he mainly operated in the penalty area in his later career, as he lost his pace and his work-rate decreased. Although naturally right footed, he was an accurate finisher with both feet, and an excellent penalty taker. Although his physical, opportunistic, "goal-poaching" style of play was at times criticized as unrefined and unorthodox, due to his lack of notable technical skills, he also drew praise throughout his career for his leadership and ability to utilise his height, solid first touch, and strong physique to win aerial challenges, hold up the ball for his teammates, and provide them with assists when playing with his back to goal, in addition to his ability to score goals himself. His strength, aerial prowess, and power saw him become one of the best ever headers of the ball in the Italian League. Writing for The Guardian, Tom Mason has said of his play, "His retirement marks the end of not only a remarkable career, but of a whole breed of striker...he seems to be a relic of an out-dated and discredited ideology. In a world where forwards are the first line of defense, where high-intensity pressing and sharp bursts of energy are a prerequisite for strikers, there seems to be little room for players in the mold of Luca…

Toni is married to Italian model Marta Cecchetto. Their son was stillborn on 1 June 2012. Their daughter Bianca was born in June 2013. On 30 July 2014, a second son, Leonardo, was born in Florence. In March 2015, German authorities sued Toni for €1.7 million in unpaid taxes to the Catholic Church. That July, he sued his former tax adviser for the same amount, claiming that he had been registered without prior knowledge as a Roman Catholic in Germany and thus had paid taxes to the Church in conflict with his own beliefs. In December, he received a payout of €1.25 million when the court found in his favour. In 2019, he stated that he has center-right political views and that he is a supporter of anti-immigrant politician Matteo Salvini, joining him on stage during a rally in Modena.