At the age of 43, the former Inter Milan favourite declared last week on his Instagram page that "Bobo is back ... going to play in China."

As yet, no details of his proposed move to the Chinese Super League have been revealed. But with Western Sydney Wanderers confirmed as one of the Australian teams for the 2017 AFC Champions League, Vieri could find himself back in Parramatta, near to his old family home in Wetherill Park, with one of the Chinese teams in the pan-Asian competition. In the 2016 edition, A-League sides faced up to Shanghai SIPG, Guangzhou Evergrande and Shandong Luneng.

Australian football has long laid claim to fostering Vieri's talent. The Italy legend lived in Sydney between the ages of four and 14 when his father, Roberto, was an import player for Marconi in the National Soccer League.

Vieri wore the colours of Marconi's junior sides but was keener on cricket, making a name for himself as a gifted batsman in the mould of national captain Allan Border.

"To be honest, I wasn't too good at football. Cricket was my first love and when I made scores for my boys team I dreamed of being the next Border," Vieri told The Daily Mail in a 1998 interview.

"Like the great man, I was a left-handed batsman and wanted to play in the Ashes and win it for Australia."

In 1988 before his 15th birthday, Vieri and his family moved back to Italy and within three years he was playing in Serie A with Torino. Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Lazio were among the other clubs where he made his mark before really finding a home at the San Siro Stadium with Inter. Bobo would go on to score over 100 Serie A goals in six seasons with the Nerazzurri.

After a two-decade career spent entirely in Europe -- and a seven-year absence from professional football -- Vieri appears poised to join the likes of Alex Teixeira, Jackson Martinez and Gervinho in China.

His former international teammates Alessandro Del Piero, Marco Materazzi and Gianluca Zambrotta headed to the shorter and more forgiving Indian Super League season, but Vieri has opted for Asia's richest and fastest growing competition, which runs from February to November.

So, what can a man, whose last appearance for Italy came more than a decade ago, offer a Chinese club?

In his prime, Vieri was almost the total package as a striker. He combined speed, power, size and cultured technique with an uncanny eye for goal.

He scored almost everywhere he went, with 23 goals in 49 goals for his country, including nine in World Cups. He found the net more than 200 times for his Italian clubs, with well over half coming from his days with Inter.

Teddy Sheringham and Ryan Giggs both turned out in the English Premier League past their 40th birthdays and 49-year-old Kazuyoshi "Kazu" Miura is still playing in the J2 league, the second tier of Japanese football.

On another of his social media accounts, Vieri announced that he'd dropped 10 kilograms ahead of his anticipated comeback. "Five months ago, I weighed 101kg, now I'm at 91kg, I've lost 10. I must drop another two, reach 89kg and I'm ready," he said.

Certainly, a move to the China market won't be a bad thing for his business interests. He runs separate fashion labels with former teammates Paolo Maldini and Cristian Brocchi.

Vieri's entry into Asia only adds to the "what ifs" around his Australian connections. In the mid-1990s, he rejected an approach from then-national coach Eddie Thomson to pledge his allegiance to the Socceroos. His younger brother Max -- a forward who played for the likes of Verona and Napoli -- earned six senior Australian caps in 2004-05, without scoring a goal.

Before the 2006 World Cup, when Vieri was asked by SBS about potentially finishing his career in the A-League, he replied: "I haven't got a clue. I was thinking now that the last year I'll play will be in New York because that's where I'll be living. New York and Miami."

In the end, Vieri never made it to Major League Soccer and even missed Germany 2006 after suffering a serious knee injury while playing for Monaco in Ligue 1 three months before the tournament. He watched from afar as the 10-man Azzurri defeated Australia 1-0 in the round of 16 after Francesco Totti's last-minute penalty.

If Vieri does return to professional football in China, the door might open for a guest stint in the A-League, or even with his old club. The Marconi Stallions play in the National Premier League and were knocked out of the FFA Cup last week by Hume City. Their Bossley Park ground is still nestled in the western Sydney Italian community that helped rear Vieri.

There could even be a reunion with his sporting hero. Not former Marconi stars Frank Farina, Peter Sharne and Tony Henderson, but cricket legend Allan Border, who's now 61 years old and doing TV commercials for seniors. At France 1998, Vieri sent an Italy shirt to 'Captain Grumpy' who responded by delivering an autographed bat.

Anything is possible as Vieri looks at beginning a new sporting chapter in the Far East. China is a long way from Italy, but it is now in the same Asian Football Confederation where Bobo first kicked the round ball, putting aside the whites and willow as a young teenager.

* Former Herald journalist Jason Dasey is Singapore-based Senior Editor of global football website www.espnfc.com