He started his career with Torino in 1991, but his most notable and successful spells were those at Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Lazio and Inter, clubs with which he won several honours.

At international level, Vieri scored 23 goals in 49 appearances for Italy between 1997 and 2005, and is the joint ninth-highest goalscorer for his national team, alongside Francesco Graziani.

He is also Italy's highest ever goalscorer in the FIFA World Cup, along with Roberto Baggio and Paolo Rossi, with a combined nine goals from nine matches at the 1998 and 2002 editions of the tournament; he also took part at Euro 2004.

[18] At the end of the 1991–92 season, Vieri would pick up a runners up medal as an unused substitute in the 1992 UEFA Cup final, lost on away goals to Ajax.

He ended his season at Juve by winning the 'Scudetto and starting in the 3–1 UEFA Champions League final loss to Borussia Dortmund.

Vieri's form for Juventus attracted the attention of Spanish side Atlético Madrid who paid £12.5 million to sign the striker in 1997.

He was part of a £45 million spending spree for the club owned by Jesús Gil that season, alongside Juninho Paulista.

[19] Vieri made his debut for Atlético on 30 August 1997 in a 1–1 draw with Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on the first day of the La Liga season.

Vieri was made the focal point of the attack and scored 22 goals in 25 games in the 2001–02 season as Inter narrowly missed out on the title after their last-day defeat to Lazio.

In addition, he scored three goals in Inter's Champions League campaign and formed a potent partnership with Hernán Crespo.

Vieri was injured during the second leg of this game and therefore played no part in the semi-final defeat to city rivals AC Milan.

[33] In January 2006, he moved on a free transfer to Monaco, on a two-and-a-half-year deal, being brought in by compatriot manager Francesco Guidolin who had also loaned an Italian strike partner in the form of Marco Di Vaio.

[34] On 26 March, he suffered a knee injury through a collision with Paris Saint-Germain's Bernard Mendy, which eventually ruled him out of a place in Italy's squad that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

[41] He scored a key goal for Italy in a 1–1 draw in the away leg of the team's play off against Russia during their qualification campaign for the 1998 World Cup.

The aforementioned quarter-final showdown against France, which had ended in a 0–0 draw following extra time, was the only game of the tournament in which Vieri was unable to score.

[47] Vieri missed out Dino Zoff's squad for Euro 2000 after suffering a recurrence of an old thigh injury, following a collision with Gianluigi Buffon during the Serie A fourth place playoff for the final Champions League spot with Inter, against Parma, at the end of the 1999–2000 season;[48][49] Buffon would later also miss out on the tournament through injury.

[50] Italy played Vieri as a lone striker in the 2002 World Cup under manager Giovanni Trapattoni, scoring an impressive four goals in four games.

In September 2012, Inter and Telecom Italia were ordered by a Milan court to pay Vieri damages amounting to €1 million for this case of phone tapping.

[58] More disappointment occurred when he missed the 2006 World Cup after suffering a knee meniscus injury in a Ligue 1 match with Monaco against Paris Saint-Germain on 26 March 2006.

[5] Although he was considered to be more of a physical rather than talented player in his youth, who lacked strong technical ability, he was able to refine his touch on the ball in training as his career progressed, showing significant improvements to his technique.

[66] In his prime, his unique and direct offensive style of play, which blended power with pace and solid technical skills, led him to be compared to Luigi Riva and Roberto Boninsegna, as well as earning him the nickname of "Il Toro" ("The Bull").

[63] He has often been described as a large, old fashioned centre forward, due to his powerful physical presence and outstanding aerial ability; he is the all-time top scorer of headed goals in Italian league history.

[73] Despite being primarily a goal-scoring striker, he was also capable of providing assists to teammates, which was aided by his ability to use his strength to hold up the ball and play with his back to goal in order to participate in the build-up of attacking plays;[74][75][76] he also excelled at beating the offside trap to get on the end of long balls with his runs in behind the defence, which also allowed him to provide depth to his team.

He has been involved in many high-profile relationships, including those with models Elisabetta Canalis, Elena Santarelli, Debora Salvalaggio, Fernanda Lessa, Melissa Satta and Jazzma Kendrick, among others.

[78][79] Vieri has his own fashion label – Sweet Years – which he runs with friend and former Italy and AC Milan teammate Paolo Maldini.

He also started another clothing brand (Baci & Abbracci) with close friend and footballer Cristian Brocchi and model Alena Šeredová.

[88] On 18 March 2019, the pair were married in a small civil ceremony at Villa Litta Modignani in the Affori ward of Milan.

[93][94][95] The thirteenth question represented a dramatic yet hilarious moment on Italian television: being the duo doubtful about the correct answer, Vincenzo Montella, one of the football players who were in the audience, invited Vieri and Gattuso to walk away with the already collected amount of €70,000 without risking to reduce the final prize to €16,000 answering incorrectly.

[97] He successively started his weekly Twitch-based podcast, named Bobo TV, together with former teammates Antonio Cassano, Daniele Adani and Nicola Ventola, which quickly became one of the most popular Web-based shows in Italy.