Top ten deadly strikers never to grace the Premier League you have probably forgotten about
WITH live football from all over the world and social media connecting millions around the globe it’s difficult to remember a time when we didn’t have every piece of news at our fingertips.
Nowadays, you know everything about the likes of Lionel Messi and Neymar before they've even made their first team debuts.
But not that long ago, there were players out there tearing it up in La Liga and Serie A with getting major coverage in the UK.
But it’s never too late to learn about them.
Here are ten iconic strikers never to grace the Premier League that you may have forgotten about.
Marcio Amoroso
The Brazilian striker was Serie A’s top scorer in 1999 with Udinese and repeated the trick three years later in the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund.
That same season, Amoroso was crowned German champion.
He won the Copa Libertadores with Sao Paolo in 2005 and was joint-top scorer with Peter Crouch in the World Club Championship.
Oliver Bierhoff
Famously scored Germany’s Golden Goal at Euro 96 — but what else do you know about him?
After topping the Serie A scoring charts with Udinese and being named German Football of the Year in 1998, he moved to AC Milan where he formed a strike partnership with first George Weah and then Andriy Shevchenko.
Bierhoff played alongside Amoroso’s in a formidable Udinese attack.
Enrico Chiesa
Italian started off in the Sampdoria youth team, where he learnt from the legendary attacking duo of Roberto Mancini and Gianluca Vialli.
It was in 1995, while at Cremonese that he made his name.
Chiesa was Hernan Crespo’s striker partner at Parma and played alongside Gabriel Batistuta at Fiorentina.
Simone Inzaghi
Now Lazio boss, Filippo’s younger brother was once banging in the goals for the Biancocelesti.
He made his name at Piacenza and moved to the Romans in time to win their famous Scudetto under Sven-Goran Eriksson in 1999-2000, scoring 19 goals in the process.
Inzaghi was only the second player to score four times in one Champions League game with his haul against Marseille in 2000.
Pedrag Mijatovic
Most famous for netting Real Madrid’s winning goal in the 1998 Champions League final — their seventh overall and first for 32 years.
Mijatovic moved to the Bernabeu in 1996 after hitting 28 goals in one season for Valencia.
In 1997, he finished runner up for the Ballon d’Or award, behind Ronaldo and ahead of Zinedine Zidane.
Marco Simone
He was part of Milan’s 1990 and 1994 European Cup and Champions League finals, but didn’t play in either.
After winning four Serie A titles in five seasons, Simone moved to Paris Saint-Germain.
He was the star of the Monaco side which won Ligue 1 in 2000.
Marcelo Salas
Chilean rejected Manchester United to join Lazio in 1998.
And Salas helped lead the Romans to Cup Winners’ Cup and Uefa Super Cup victory — netting the only goal against Sir Alex Ferguson’s men — and a first Serie A title in 26 years.
He moved to Juventus along with Pavel Nedved in 2001 and won another two Scudettos.
Giuseppe Signori
Some many have read about his five-year football ban in 2011 following his role in alleged match-fixing.
But on the pitch, he was an unbelievable player.
Signori was Serie A’s top goal scorer in three separate seasons while at Lazio and carried on after leaving for Bologna.
Christian Viei
A sensational striker whose goal scoring prowess never got the global publicity he deserved.
Vieri was the world’s most-expensive player when he left Lazio to join Inter Milan for £32million in 1999.
Started Juventus’ 1997 Champions League final defeat to Dortmund and was top scorer in La Liga with Atletico Madrid the following season.
Ivan Zamorano
Salas’ striker partner for Chile later became Ronaldo’s foil at Inter.
But before moving to Serie A, he had already made his name with Real Madrid.
Zamorano won La Liga in 1995 when he finished as top goal scorer and was voted Best Foreign Player.