Blast from the Past no.51: Corrado Grabbi

Reviving the Premier League players you forgot existed…

Whichever way you swing it, Corrado Grabbi’s career at Blackburn Rovers was a washout. Two league goals in 30 league games; signed for £6.75m, offloaded for peanuts; described on his own Wikipedia page as “one of the worst transfers in the history of the Premier League”. The kind of expensive, long-haired foreign flop that leaves fans cursing his name years after he has slunk back to wherever it was he came from.

But at Ewood Park, where the hunky Italian striker spent two and half years disappointing everyone who laid eyes on him, he leaves an unexpected legacy: the people of Blackburn actually quite like him.

Modern football fans are not known for their capacity for peace, love and understanding. But when it comes to Grabbi, Rovers fans show an almost unprecedented level of compassion. A recognition that yes, his signing was an unmitigated calamity, but was that really his fault?

Signed in the summer of 2001 from Serie B outfit Ternana, where Rovers manager Graeme Souness claimed he had been “a God”, Grabbi surfed to Lancashire on a wave of expectation after smashing in 20 goals in 34 games the previous season.

He didn’t exactly hit the ground running – one fan describes his Premiership debut at Derby as a “damp squib” – but Rovers had just been promoted to the top flight and their supporters were feeling generous.

“He was desperately unlucky a few times early on - hitting the woodwork multiple times,” recalled one Rovers fan on the BRFCS forum

“You could see he had technique but he came from the Italian second division so to jump into the English Premiership overnight was a massive task for anyone,” argued another.

Grabbi’s fans maintain that his Sliding Doors moment occurred in the second game of his Rovers career.

With Souness’ side trailing 1-0 at home to Manchester United, Grabbi dispossessed the over-elaborating Red Devils goalkeeper Fabien Barthez and looped the ball into the erratic Frenchman’s unguarded net from 25 yards. The strike was disallowed - “harshly” according to the Guardian’s match report, along with the Ewood Park crowd.

“It was a really clever ‘goal’. There was nothing wrong with it apart from it being against United,” commented one Rovers supporter, while another said the decision was “brutal”.

“These things just seemed to happen to him. The poor guy could barely buy a goal,” said a fellow Grabbi sympathiser.

“I think if that had been allowed then it could have been the spark that he needed,” insisted another.

There was relief and vindication for some of those fans, not to mention Souness, when the 26-year-old broke his duck - seven games into his Blackburn career - with a tidy finish in a 1-0 win against Everton.

“While I am thrilled for him, I have never doubted his ability to score goals,” remarked Souness confidently.

But sadly, it would be almost a year before Grabbi found the net in a league game again. In the meantime, some flaws in his game emerged.

“Lightweight, not particularly quick, a bit timid and easily intimidated,” commented one fan.

“Slower than Kevin Davies, as physically robust as Niko Kalinic, goalscoring instincts of Jason Roberts,” summarised another.

Soon, rumours about the nature of his signing began to circulate. The deal had been “dodgy”; he was bought on the back of a highlights video; Souness had signed the “wrong player”.

Importantly, however, none of this dimmed his popularity. He became less of a footballer, more of a “character”.

He once referred to Blackburn as “Blackpool Rovers” in a TV interview (and was instantly forgiven). He could be sometimes be spotted roaming the city in a huge Italian coat and a cravat, while one fan recalls seeing the striker in his element at a local Italian restaurant.

“He was in and out of the kitchen orchestrating the cooking of his family meal. Sadly he was much better at that than playing football.”

As one supporter explains, “The fans never really got on his back. They warmed to him as a character, even if he was totally out of his depth as a footballer. I think he just had one magic season in Serie B and found himself somewhere he had no right to be.“

"It never looked like his football was going to get in the way of a bit of celebrity status,” said another.

You can, therefore, imagine the excitement when Grabbi finally scored his second league goal.

After spending the end of his first season on loan to Messina, he returned to Ewood Park refreshed and made his first appearance of the new campaign against Liverpool. Entering the field as an 82nd-minute substitute, his last-gasp header salvaged a dramatic 2-2 draw.

Once again, Rovers fans dared to dream that their hero had turned the corner. He hadn’t, obviously.

Grabbi never scored a Premiership goal again. He hung around at Blackburn for another season and a half, more as a mascot than anything, before returning to Italy with Ancona, where he failed to repeat the heights of his glory season at Ternana. Within a couple of years he found himself playing in the Swiss second division.

“Wanted him to succeed, was actually bloody awful,” concluded one Rover.

“He was still better than anything we’ve got up front now,” pointed out another.

And it’s true, maybe if Blackburn were able to sign a 26-year-old Corradi Grabbi tomorrow, he would fulfil his destiny as the club legend those fans desperately wanted him to be. Instead, they are left to fantasise about the greatness they sensed inside him.

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