He has eclipsed Roberto Baggio and Alessandro Del Piero to become the most talked-about forward in the Italy camp, but Vieri himself is saying little.``How many goals do you promise to score in the next round?'' asked one reporter after Vieri's powerful header had set Italy on their way to a 2-1 defeat of Austria on Tuesday.

``None. I don't make promises,'' Vieri replied. ``Did you ever dream you'd start the World Cup like this?'' ventured another. ``I don't dream,'' responded Vieri before moving on.

The brusque Vieri cuts an odd figure at Italy's training camp where most of his team mates, in good Italian tradition, never tire of their own voices and are willing to chat with reporters from morning to night.

Perhaps his experience lastseason, when he was dropped by Atletico coach Radomir Antic and fined for criticising team tactics, has made him wary of speaking his mind.

One of only two foreign-based players in Cesare Maldini's squad, Vieri is one of soccer's nomads. Born to a French mother and an Italian father -- also a professional footballer -- Vieri was brought up in Australia. One of his earliest World Cup memories is Italy's triumph in Madrid in 1982, when the Azzurri crowned themselves champions for the third time.

While his compatriots were celebrating along the length of the Italian peninsula, Vieri, a nine-year-old schoolboy, was watching on television with his father and a handful of friends, 18,000 kms away at four o'clock in the morning.

Soon afterwards Vieri returned to the motherland and broke into the Italy side at under-21 level, when Maldini was coach. ``I've been playing under Maldini for six years now,'' the striker said. ``He's always made me feel at ease and provided me with the ideal conditions in which toplay.''

And Maldini, after nurturing Vieri through to his full international debut last year, says he is not surprised at the striker's extraordinary start to the World Cup.

``It's nothing new,'' Maldini said. ``Christian has come from a superb season with Atletico Madrid. He's always scored goals at Juventus, with the under-21s and in Spain.''

Asked who Vieri reminded him of, the coach named Anon-Italian -- the great Swedish striker Gunnar Nordahl, who played alongside Maldini in the AC Milan side of the 1950s, scoring over 200 goals in seven Serie A seasons. ``He has the build and the power of Nordahl. Christian could be the Nordahl of the year 2000,'' Maldini said.

As long as Vieri continues to prosper at the World Cup, Italians won't care that the man they have christened ``the Ice Giant'' keeps to himself.