Fiore played for several Italian clubs throughout his career; he started out with
Cosenza
in 2009, where he ended his career after two seasons.
At international level, Fiore won 38 caps for the Italy national football team between 2000 and 2004, and scored twice. At youth level, he was a member of the team that won the 1997 Mediterranean Games, while at senior level he was selected to the Italy squads for UEFA Euro 2000, in which he scored one goal as his team reached the final, and UEFA Euro 2004.
Club career
Parma and early years
Chievo
Fiore was born in Cosenza, and he began his professional footballing career with
final
in Moscow. Fiore was one of the protagonists of Parma's triumphant European campaign that season, notching two goals in ten UEFA Cup appearances.
Udinese
In June 1999 Fiore moved to Udinese under Luigi De Canio, originally a cash-plus-player deal in which Parma would receive Stephen Appiah and Márcio Amoroso,[4] for a combined 90 billion lire transfer fees to Udinese, Fiore priced as 15 billion and the rest as cash.
His breakthrough with the club came during the 1999–2000 Serie A season, which saw him score a personal best of 9 goals in 33 appearances.
His fine form earned him a call to the national side for Euro 2000 at the expense of Dino Baggio, the man who had kept him out of the Parma team for so long. His fine form continued and he scored 9 goals in 34 games in the 2000–01 season, during which he also won the 2000 UEFA Intertoto Cup with Udinese, which allowed them to qualify for the UEFA Cup that season.
Lazio
Eventually, Fiore did move to
Italian lire.[5] Lazio had big money moves that season, they sold midfielder Juan Sebastián Verón and Pavel Nedvěd that month (June), and sold striker Marcelo Salas to Juventus for cash and Darko Kovačević. They also got Jaap Stam to compensate part of Verón's transfer fees, as well as signing Gaizka Mendieta from Valencia. In his first season at Lazio, Fiore initially played under his former Italy manager at Euro 2000, Dino Zoff
.
Fiore could not find his best form for Lazio during the 2001–02 season, as the coach that replaced Zoff, Alberto Zaccheroni, persisted in playing him on the left side of midfield. This resulted in Fiore losing his place in the national side for the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
Zaccheroni was dismissed in 2002, and Fiore began to improve with a new coach,
final against Juventus.[6][7] His impressive showings earned him a place on the national side for Euro 2004
.
Valencia
Due to the financial problems which Lazio were suffering, Fiore, along with Bernardo Corradi, were off-loaded to Spanish club Valencia, where he joined the Italian coach Claudio Ranieri, and compatriot Marco Di Vaio, signing a 3+1 years contract.[8] Corradi was priced at €10 million and Fiore at €6.6 million. The sale compensated the unpaid €16.6 million of Gaizka Mendieta's remaining transfer fees from Valencia to Lazio.
After a promising start, which included winning the UEFA Super Cup over Champions League winners Porto, Valencia suffered a disastrous losing streak in October, from which they never fully recovered. They exited the UEFA Champions League early, and coach Claudio Ranieri was dismissed by mid February. Fiore could not adequately adapt to the demands of Spanish football, and was often left on the substitutes' bench.
Loans
In July 2005, Fiore and Corradi returned to Serie A, with Fiorentina taking the midfielder on a loan spell.
Calciopoli verdicts
saw them lose this place.
Fiorentina decided not to take Fiore on a permanent basis and he sealed a loan move to
Successively, Fiore did not play for any team during the 2008–09, but in September 2009 he finally made his comeback into active football, agreeing a three-year contract with hometown club
final, only to lose to the defending World Champions France on a golden-goal in extra-time.[18]
Under Zoff's replacement Giovanni Trapattoni, Fiore continued to be a member of the national side, scoring his second international goal on 28 February 2001, in a friendly defeat to Argentina, at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.[19] He missed out on the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan, where Italy were disappointingly and controversially eliminated in the second round by co-hosts South Korea.
Fiore's impressive showings for Lazio during the 2003–04 season allowed him to return to the national side in 2003, and he earned a place in Italy's 23-man squad for
Sweden, who both progressed on to the quarter-finals.[20]
Following Trapattoni's departure in 2004, due to Italy's negative performance in the European Championships, Fiore featured in certain matches under the new Italy manager Marcello Lippi. Fiore retired from the national side later that year. In total, Fiore won 38 caps for the Italy national team between 2000 and 2004, scoring two goals.[21]
Style of play
Throughout his career, Fiore was usually deployed as an
deep-lying playmaker, due to his tactical versatility, physique, and defensive work-rate off the ball, as well as his ability to link-up with other players and both create or finish off chances.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]
Career statistics
Appearances and goals by national team and year[31][32]
