With Germany facing off against Italy in the upcoming international break, what better time for bundesliga.com to take a look at five Italians who made their mark on the German game…
Vincenzo Grifo
Appearances: 264 (66 goals)
Clubs: Hoffenheim, Freiburg, Borussia Mönchengladbach
Honours: Bundesliga 2 winner (2015/16), DFB Cup runner-up 2021–22
Born in south-west Germany to Italian parents, Grifo was something of a late bloomer. Although he made his Bundesliga debut as a teenager with Hoffenheim in 2012/13, it wasn’t until the attacking midfielder had a couple of productive seasons in Bundesliga 2 – first with FSV Frankfurt in 2014/15 and then with Freiburg the following season – that he truly began to establish himself as a player to keep an eye on.
The right-footer enjoys playing centrally, behind a main striker, but is also effective drifting in off the left wing. A dead-ball specialist, the 31-year-old has had three spells at Hoffenheim, as well as a season at Gladbach, but it is at Freiburg, under former head coach Christian Streich, and now Julian Schuster, that he has truly shone. “He’s a really hard worker and he’s not a bad player either,” said Streich. “He’s self-critical too, so he’ll keep improving.”
So good is he, in fact, that he was called up to a star-studded Italy squad in 2018 and earned the first of nine senior caps [he has since scored four goals for the Azzurri] in a friendly against the USA. Grifo now takes the majority of Freiburg’s free-kicks, corners and penalties, and finished the 2023/24 campaign with a team-high eight goals and eight assists. That tally followed an incredible 2022/23 season, where he recorded 15 goals and five assists.
Watch: Vincenzo Grifo’s free-kick mastery
