Early years Born in
Venice, Rocchi began playing football in his home city and joined the youth ranks of
Venezia at nine years of age. He came up through the ranks in the Venezia junior system before signing for giants
Juventus in 1994. Rocchi won the Primavera title with the
Turin club that year before moving up to the first team for the
1995–96 season, in which the
bianconeri claimed the
Champions League title. He did not make any first team appearances however, and soon left the club. From then on, Rocchi played
Serie C football (mainly in Serie C1), playing in 121 matches and scoring 36 goals for
Pro Patria,
Fermana, Saronno and
Como. Como bought Rocchi for 300 million lire (€154,937) in 1998 in
co-ownership deal. In June 2000 Como bought Rocchi outright for 900 million lire (€464,811), 600 million lire (€309,874) excess the original fee. He managed to get a chance in
Serie B with
Treviso, which Como sold half of the registration rights to Treviso in 2000 for 1.4 billion lire (€723,040) and bought back in June 2001.
Empoli From Treviso (via Como), Rocchi moved to
Tuscany with
Empoli, also in
Serie B at the time. With Empoli, Rocchi made over 100 appearances, and scored a total of 29 goals, 16 of which came in
Serie A, where Rocchi had put in some decent performances during the
2002–03 and
2003–04 seasons. He scored a winner against
Inter Milan on 18 January 2004, and a week later, he scored a hattrick against original club
Juventus in a 3–3 draw.
Lazio These performances earned Rocchi a €1.5 million move to
Lazio for the
2004–05 season, in another
co-ownership deal. Rocchi's first goal of the championship for Lazio came on 22 September 2004 against
Brescia at the
Stadio Mario Rigamonti in a 2–0 win. His finest individual performance of the season was a hattrick against
Lecce, and Rocchi ended a successful debut season with 13 goals in 35 league appearances. He also scored twice in the
2004–05 UEFA Cup, his first appearance in European competition. Most significantly however, Rocchi scored the third goal in a 3–1
Derby della Capitale win, the first of these clashes in which he played. In June 2005 Lazio bought him outright for another €2.5 million. Di Canio left Lazio in 2006, leaving Rocchi as the major star striker at the club. Rocchi also had a strong partnership with Macedonian forward
Goran Pandev. Often Pandev would play in the hole behind Rocchi, but they were also able to play up front together with a central attacking midfielder behind. Between them, they were Lazio's top goalscorers for three seasons consecutively. A positive
2005–06 season saw Rocchi score a personal best 16 league goals as Lazio finished sixth, a place which was later taken away from them due to the
Calciopoli scandal. At first relegation to
Serie B was the verdict, but Lazio were soon reinstated to the top flight. Beginning the
2006–07 season with an eleven-point deduction, a relegation battle appeared on the cards for Lazio, and a slow start did nothing to help the situation. However, the team's form soon improved, and the deduction was reduced to three, making a tilt at a
UEFA Champions League place an unlikely yet possible goal. Rocchi backed up his 16-goal haul yet again, as Lazio finished third and qualified for Europe's premier club competition. . The
2007–08 season saw Rocchi make his personal debut in the
UEFA Champions League, where he scored a crucial winning goal against
Werder Bremen. This season he ended the campaign with 14 Serie A goals. He spent much of the year as captain of Lazio, deputizing for the often injured
Luciano Zauri. On 20 February 2008, Rocchi renewed his contract, extending the deal by five years. This contract extension would run until 2013, and effectively ensure Rocchi would remain at the club for the remainder of his career. On 19 March 2008, Rocchi scored his fourth goal in the
Derby della Capitale in a 3–2 victory against
AS Roma. From a personal perspective,
2008–09 was a poor season for Rocchi. After missing the first two months of the season due to an injury suffered while on international duty at the
2008 Beijing Games, Rocchi never reached his usual goalscoring form, finishing with just 9 for the season; his lowest tally in six years. However, the club won their fifth
Coppa Italia title, defeating
Sampdoria in a penalty shootout. Rocchi suffered the indignity of being the only Lazio player to fail to convert his spot kick, however he did go on to score the winning goal in the Italian Super Cup final against Inter Milan. This season was also his first as the official team captain, after the departure of Zauri to
Fiorentina. At the end of the
2008–09 season, having made over 200 appearances in the Lazio shirt, and having scored 83 goals, Rocchi declared his target was to join an exclusive list of players to have scored 100 goals for the club. This mark had only previously been reached by four players,
Silvio Piola,
Giuseppe Signori,
Bruno Giordano and
Giorgio Chinaglia. Rocchi decided to change his number 18 shirt for the number 9, which had previously been worn by all of those four, aside from Signori.
Inter Milan On 4 January 2013, after spending nine years at
Lazio, Rocchi joined
Inter Milan by signing a contract until the end of the
2012–13. His new side paid a fee of €300,000 to the
Roman side. He was presented to the media three days later and was handed squad number 18. He scored his first goal for Inter on 7 April 2013 against
Atalanta at home in an eventual in a 4–3 loss. Ten days later, Rocchi give his first assist, a backheel assist for
Jonathan, in the returning leg of
2012–13 Coppa Italia semi-final tie against
Roma which ended in a 2–3 home defeat. On 21 April, Rocchi scored his second goal of the season, the winner against
Parma. ==International career==