Massimo Coda’s strike for Sampdoria against Sudtirol will always be remembered as a bittersweet moment.

In the context of the game it was meaningless. Samp were already losing by three goals as the contest meandered towards its natural conclusion.

There were only a few minutes left on the clock when Coda took control of the ball with his back to goal outside the area, turned, shifted to his left before angling a perfectly-placed shot into the opposite corner of the Sudtirol net.

And with it, history was made.

Coda, at the grand old age of 36, surpassed Stefan Schwoch to become the all-time top scorer in the Italian second tier.

Now sitting on 136 goals and surely with a couple more seasons left in him, Coda looks set to pull away from the rest to become Mr. Serie B or, as La Gazzetta termed him, ‘king of the second tier’.

Never quite good enough in Serie A but too good for Serie B, Coda played a mere 42 games in the big time. Yet the former Parma, Lecce, Salernitana, Benevento and Cremonese man now stands top of the mountain.

But who else rounds out the top 10?

Marco Ferrante (115 goals)

A Torino legend, Ferrante scored the majority of his goals in the second tier for a litany of clubs, with Catania, Pescara, Verona, Pisa, Salernitana, Perugia, Reggiana and, of course, Toro all represented. 

A man who once had the temerity to nutmeg then-Torino boss Graeme Souness in a game of rondos, Ferrante was an excellent forward, unfortunate that his peak coincided with others that were marginally better.

Ferrante scored 114 goals for Torino alone during his career, and his form at the beginning of the 2000s won him a move to Inter on loan.

Had Ferrante been in his peak now, he surely would have played for Italy, yet he never turned out for the Azzurri and received one call up to the U21 side, a reminder of the quality the country possessed at the time.

Dario Hubner (116)

Il Bison is the cult heroes’ cult hero.

Hubner is the only player in the list to win top scorer in Serie A and B (and also C1).

He did not make his debut at the highest level until the age of 30, and toiled for years in the lower reaches of the game. His Serie B bow came at the age of 25.

Yet he made up for lost time. From 1992 to 2003 he hit double figures every season, no matter the division and no matter the club. 

Stints at Cesena, Brescia and Piacenza all consisted of goals. It was with Piacenza he won the 2001-02 Capocannoniere alongside David Trezeguet with 24 goals at the age of 35, which was a ludicrous achievement considering the level of the league at the time.

The goals, however, dried up at the highest level by the age of 36. A chain smoker, Hubner continued playing until the age of 44, lining out for a side called Cavenago, a local team in the Brescia region of Lombardy.

Francesco Caputo (117)

Another cult hero, ‘Cicco’ Caputo rose to prominent in the latter half of the 2010s with Empoli and later Sassuolo.

Caputo played a role in Bari’s last promotion to the top flight in 2009, scoring 11 in 38 games. He then moved on to Salernitana, Siena and Virtus Entella before landing in Tuscany.

A mobile striker capable of scoring with both feet, Caputo’s form for the Neroverdi was so good he earned two caps for Italy, scoring on his debut against Moldova.

He later had spells at Sampdoria and a return to Empoli, where he finished his career. 

Federico Dionisi (118)

Dionisi scored the bulk of his goals while playing for Frosinone.

Still playing today with Livorno in Serie C, he featured in Serie A, scoring nine times in 2015-16, including against Milan at San Siro.

Dionisi stayed with Frosinone as they bounced between the divisions in the late 2010s before moving to Ascoli, where the goals continued to flow.

He also had a brief stint in Portugal with Olhanense.

Francesco Tavano (119)

Another with cult-hero status, Tavano did look at one point like he could break into the upper echelons of Serie A in the mid-2000s and become an Azzurri regular.

Tavano rifled in the majority of his goals for Empoli, netting 19 in consecutive seasons in Serie A and B. His form for the Tuscans saw him win a move to Valencia, but he struggled and returned to Italy with Roma in January 2007.

He played for Livorno in the latter half of the 2000s before returning to his beloved Empoli in 2011 to steer the club back into Serie A.

After leaving the club in 2015 he slowly tumbled down the divisions, only ending his career in June 2024 at the age of 45 in the eighth level of the Italian game.

Antonio De Vitis (124)

The little-remembered De Vitis fired his teams to four promotions during his time as a player in the 1980s and 90s. 

He played once for Napoli in the pre-Diego Maradona days, but was sold to a team called Campania, now known as Puteolana, in 1983.

Stints with Palermo, Salernitana, Taranto, Udinese and Piacenza yielded bags of goals.

His promotions were with Verona, Udinese and Piacenza, but other than his cameo for Napoli, he never played a game in the top flight.

Andrea Caracciolo (132)

While most on the list never got too many attempts to impress at the very highest level of the Italian game, the same cannot be said of Caracciolo.

Between 2001 and 2008 he was a regular fixture in Serie A, playing for Brescia, Perugia, Palermo and Sampdoria. He even played alongside Roberto Baggio at the Rondinelle and received two caps for the Azzurri.

A tall striker in the Luca Toni mould, Caracciolo perhaps had the misfortune to be around at the same time as the former Italy striker, who was clearly a step above.

He dropped down into the second tier with Brescia and mostly stayed there until the end of his career, bar brief outings with Genoa and Novara back in the big time.

He finished his career with Lumezzane in the fifth tier, like the next entry.

Daniele Cacia (134 )

A man who won two promotions with Verona and Piacenza, Cacia was, like Coda, just lacking that extra something to make the jump from B to A.

He club-hopped around Italy during his 22-year career, but is mostly associated with Piacenza. Of his 134 goals in the second tier, 51 of them came during his various stints in Emilia Romagna. 

Cacia was still playing as late as 2022, when he turned out for Nibbiano and Valtidone in the fifth tier. 

His last stint in Serie B was with Cesena, when he played 16 times and scored three goals.

Stefan Schwoch (135)

Schwoch was, ironically enough, born in Bolzano, the very place where his record was taken from him by Coda.

Retiring from the game in 2008 at the age of 39, Schwoch is one of those strikers who came good after hitting 30.

He bounced around the lower leagues until making his B debut in 1996 with Ravenna. He got a brief taste of Serie A life with Venezia before returning to the second tier with Napoli, scoring the goal that earned them promotion in 1999-00 against Pistoiese. 

He moved to Vicenza after a stint with Torino and enjoyed a second youth, scoring 74 times in Serie B with the Venetian side and also becoming club captain.