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,[1] 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.
[citation needed] Upon his return to England, he failed to reignite his form, and after a further 16 games and three goals (against Liverpool in the league,[5] CSKA Sofia in the UEFA Cup[6] and Walsall in the League Cup)[7] with Blackburn, who had in the meantime signed ex-Manchester United strikers Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, he was allowed to return to Italy permanently with Ancona in 2004.
After spending one year without a team, trying to recover from the injury caused by a rare form of foot disease (Leveraus Morb) which had afflicted him for the past three seasons, he joined Genoa of Serie C1/A in September 2005.
After relegation with Arezzo, scoring no goals, Grabbi signed a contract with AC Bellinzona, a team from the Swiss Challenge League (second division).
[8] Among all the players he trained as a youth coach from his early years in the Pulcini category, Grabbi also worked with Italian international Moise Kean.