Corrado Grabbi

Who is Corrado Grabbi?

Corrado Grabbi is a retired Italian football player.

Grabbi began his career with the Juventus youth team. He was promoted to the first team and scored on his debut against Lazio, in one of his total two appearances in the 1994–1995 season. Unable to break into the team, because of his young age and the contemporary explosion of Alessandro Del Piero, he was loaned to Lucchese and then Chievo before switching to Modena. There he found some real form, scoring 30 times in 58 appearances. This performance saw him signed by Ternana, where he played for one season before been loaned to Ravenna where he scored 13 goals. When he returned to Ternana he became a regular scorer again, with 20 goals in 34 games and became idol for the local supporters, who still remember him as the best player to ever have played for Ternana.

His season with Ternana saw him attract attention of various Serie A clubs, including Udinese and AC Milan. But apparently Luciano Moggi of Juventus, who had previously pressured Grabbi to change his agent and join GEA World with no success, made it impossible for Ciccio to play in Italy, so in 2001 he was signed by Blackburn Rovers for a record fee of £6.75 million in July 2001, but due to injuries and personal reasons, he failed to repeat this progress, scoring just once in fourteen league games, his goal coming in a 1–0 win over Everton. He scored once more before going on loan to Messina, in the FA Cup against Barnsley. Grabbi's move to Blackburn is widely regarded as one of the worst transfers in the history of the Premier League. In an interview with an Italian TV Station, Grabbi stated that he was finding it hard to acclimatise himself to the British weather and game, and also said that he was finding it hard to fit in with the team. The team was accused of singling him out, and not being friendly to him, which also accounted for Blackburn's slump in form.