FABIO CANNAVARO
Fabio Cannavaro, Ufficiale OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [ˈfaːbjo kannaˈvaːro]; born 13 September 1973) is an Italian former professional footballer who predominantly excelled as a centreback. He was also deployed as a right or left sided fullback on occasion. As a defender, Cannavaro was known in particular for his concentration, anticipation, awareness and positional sense. Despite his relatively small stature for a defender, he was highly regarded for his aerial ability, courtesy of his elevation, physical strength, athleticism, timing and heading accuracy, which enabled him to outjump larger players, and made him particularly adept at defending crosses, or at scoring with his head from set-pieces.
In a training session at Napoli, the young Fabio produced a strong sliding challenge on Maradona, who was then the undisputed star of the club, to dispossess him. The rough challenge angered teammates and staff at Napoli. However, Maradona himself defended the promising player and before long he was making waves in the first team. However, despite his promising performances, the post-Maradona Napoli were in desperate need of funds and were soon forced to sell Cannavaro to Parma, where Cannavaro rose to prominence. At Parma despite narrowly missing out on Seria A on a number of occasions he won the UEFA Cup, Coppa Italia (twice), Supercoppa Italiana and was named the Serie A Defender of the Year.
He then made a big money move to Inter, where his stint with the club began promisingly, as Inter reached the semi-finals of the 2002–03 Champions League and also finished runners-up in Serie A to Juventus in his first season with the club. However, he missed a large chunk of his second season through injury and was also often played out of position. Inter finished fourth in Serie A and reached the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, and were knocked out in the Champions League group stages. After two years with the club, he was sold to Juventus in a surprising part-exchange deal, after just over 50 appearances and two goals. By moving to Turin, he reunited with his ex-Parma teammates Lilian Thuram and Gianluigi Buffon, and together the threesome formed one of the most feared defences in the Serie A winning two consecutive Scudetti in 2005 and 2006. After the calciopoli scandal, he spent three seasons at Madrid, winning the Liga title in 2006–07 and 2007–08 but due to advancing years his performance levels were increasingly erratic and after a botched return to Juventus, he retired after a short spell in the middle east.
Cannavaro's first international tournament came at 1998 World Cup, where he made several strong performances throughout the tournament, although Italy eventually went out in the quarter-finals to hosts and eventual champions France. At Euro 2000, under manager Dino Zoff, Cannavaro had a strong tournament, playing as centre-back alongside either Alessandro Nesta, Mark Iuliano or Paolo Maldini in 3–5–2 formation. The Italian defence only conceded two goals en route to the final but once again fell to France, this time via an injury time equaliser and a golden goal by David Trezeguet. Cannavaro was elected as part of the Team of the Tournament for his performances. After a bitterly disappointing World Cup 2002 campaign and Euro 2004, Cannavaro etched his name into the history books with a stunning series of performances at the 2006 World Cup, captaining Italy throughout their successful 2006 World Cup campaign with composure and aplomb. Cannavaro's leadership and marshalling of the Italian defence enabled the Italian defence to keep a record five clean sheets and conceded only two goals throughout the entire tournament. His displays not only earned him the Silver Ball and a place in the All-Star Team at the end of the competition but won him the 2006 Ballon D'or and 2006 Fifa World Player of the Year trophy. Injured during Euro 2008, a waning Cannavaro once again captained Italy in the defence of their trophy in 2010 where they failed spectacularly and prompting his international retirement.