Igor Protti, together with Dario Hubner, is the only player to have been top season scorer for Serie A, Serie B and Serie C1. A remarkable feat.
He was born in Rimini on September 24, 1967 and started his footballing career in the youth teams of his hometown. He debuted professionally at 16 playing in C1. When he turned 18 he signed for Livorno still in C1 and stayed there for three years. He played quite a lot of games (83) but only started scoring regularly in his third year with 14 goals in all competitions. In 1988-89 he was loaned to Virescit Bergamo and had another positive season scoring 10 goals. In 1989 he signed for Messina in Serie B and scored 31 goals in three years.
His next step was an important one, he signed for Bari. They were in Serie B but after two years the Apulia side was promoted to Serie A. In his first three years he did not score much (22 goals in 79 league games) but in 1995-‘96 he finally exploded scoring 24 goals in Serie A, top scorer together with Beppe Signori.
Lazio President Sergio Cragnotti dreamed of putting these two players together, thinking that it would rain goals under manager Zdenek Zeman, so Protti joined Lazio, helped also by the fact that despite all of his goals Bari had been relegated to Serie B. Unfortunately it was not a good year for the Biancocelesti and half way through Zeman was replaced by Dino Zoff. He did score seven goals, including a last second goal against Roma in a derby with Lazio behind, but it was difficult to find the right equilibrium up front with Signori and Pierluigi Casiraghi. With the arrival of Sven-Goran Eriksson in 1997, as well as the return of Alen Boksic plus the signing of Roberto Mancini, Protti was loaned to Napoli in Serie A to get some playing time. It was a terrible year for the Neapolitan team who arrived bottom with just 14 points. He returned briefly to Lazio but with the addition of Marcelo Salas he found very little space so he was loaned out again, this time to Reggiana in Serie B. Alas another relegation.
In 1999-00 he returned to Livorno in Serie C1. The year after he was top scorer in Serie C1, a feat he repeated in 2001-02 and the Amaranto were promoted to Serie B, returning to the second tier after 31 years. In 2002-03 he was top scorer in Serie B. In 2002-04, Livorno arrived third and were promoted to Serie A, 54 years after the last time they played in the top tier. He scored 24 goals that season. He stayed one more year and Livorno managed to avoid relegation. He scored six league goals and at the end of the season decided to retire.
After he stopped playing he continued to work in football, first with Tuttocuoio (San Miniato-Pisa) and then back at Livorno as club manager. When the club went bust, he worked for the new Livorno team until 2022-23.
Protti was an incredible goal scorer. Not particularly tall, 1.71 metres, but he could be lethal in the penalty box. He scored 248 goals in his career and it was a pity that he arrived at Lazio in the wrong year.
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | UEFA Cup |
1996-97 | 34 (7) | 27 (7) | 3 | 4 |
Jul-Oct 1998 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - |
Total | 37 (7) | 29 (7) | 4 | 4 |
Sources
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