I had the chance to sign for Liverpool or Tottenham and I made a very big mistake

Plenty of foreign players have graced the Premier League and shown off their quality and charisma over the years. One player that perhaps will not get as many headlines as others is Fabrizio Ravanelli.

The Italian frontman spent three years in England's top flight, although his first campaign was initially just a one-season stint. Ravanelli had just won the Champions League with Juventus when Middlesbrough pulled off a major coup by bringing him to the Premier League in 1996.

He had an extraordinary season on Teesside, scoring a hat-trick on his debut against Liverpool following a £7million move. Boro reached both domestic cup finals, losing them both to Chelsea in the FA Cup and Leicester in the League Cup. And despite their joy in the cups, Ravanelli could not save the club from relegation from the top flight and he made the move to Marseille in the summer of 1997.

The silver-haired striker would return to England in 2001 for two years with Derby County, with whom Ravanelli was also relegated. But he could have been in England longer than his first one-year spell with Boro, rather than heading to France.

In an interview for Bitcoin Casinos, Ravanelli explained all. He said: «After winning the Champions League with Juventus in 1996, Bryan Robson came to me and he had been a hero of mine in football. He came to speak with me in Milan. I was on holiday when we met him. He made a fantastic impression and I understood very quickly he is a fantastic man.

»I respect Bryan Robson because he is an incredible guy, fantastic manager. It was disappointing for me that my experience at Middlesbrough ended after just one year. But after relegation I wanted to go to the World Cup 1998.

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