Gianfranco Zola was one of the greatest Italian players of the 1990s, nicknamed magic box.
Born on July 5, 1966, in Oliena near Nuoro in Sardinia, he started playing football for Corrasi in his hometown. In 1984 he signed for Nuorese where he played a couple of years in the 4th and 5th tiers. In 1986 he moved to Sassari to play for Torres in C2 reaching promotion to C1 in his first year. He was always a protagonist and the club almost made it to Serie B in 1988-89, missing out by just three points.
In 1989 he moved to Naples, and immediately befriended Diego Armando Maradona and Careca. In his first year he won the Scudetto and made 26 appearances in all competitions with three goals. When Maradona left, he took his place and played another three seasons in Naples.
In 1993 he signed for Parma. Napoli were forced to sell him for economic reasons. In Emilia he stayed for three seasons, winning a UEFA Super Cup in 1993 and a UEFA Cup in 1994-95. The next season he found less space since he faced competition from Hristo Stoichkov. In the following year he was forced to play as left winger since new manager Carlo Ancelotti preferred Hernan Crespo and Enrico Chiesa up front.
In 1996 he signed for Chelsea, joining Luca Vialli. He stayed in London for 7 years with 312 appearances and 80 goals. He won a Cup Winners Cup in 1997-98, two FA Cups in 1997 and 2000, a League Cup in 1997-98 and a Charity Shield in 2000. Zola became a legend at the Club and is still hugely popular today.
In 2003-04 he left London and went back to Sardinia to join Cagliari in Serie B. He contributed to taking them back up to Serie A in his first year and keeping their top flight status in his second. At the end of the 2004-05 season, he retired.
Despite a great career, at international level he was not as lucky due to the dualism with Roberto Baggio. He debuted for Italy against Norway in a Euro 1992 qualifying match on November 13, 1991. He was part of the 1994 World Cup squad in the US, but he only played 12 minutes in the Round of 16 against Nigeria as he was controversially sent off and then given a two-match suspension. In Euro 1986 he missed a decisive penalty which would have taken Italy beyond the group stage. He scored the goal in Italy’s win at Wembley against England for the 1998 World Cup Qualifiers (only the second time the Azzurri had won in England) but did not make the final squad as Roberto Baggio was preferred. In total he made 35 appearances for Italy with 10 goals.
Once he stopped playing, he went into management and started as assistant to Pierluigi Casiraghi for Italy Under 21's in 2006. On September 11 2008 he became manager at West Ham. His predecessor, Alan Curbishley, had resigned following the sale of Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney without his permission. After a shaky start, the Hammers managed to reach 9th place by the end of the season. He stayed the following year too but West Ham struggled and arrived 17th, avoiding relegation by five points. Two days after the end of the season he was sacked and replaced by Avram Grant, one of the worst decisions in the club’s history. As a matter of fact, the Hammers were relegated the following year.
In February 22, 2012, Lazio manager Edy Reja resigned due to contrasts with President Claudio Lotito and sporting director Igli Tare. The team were about to leave for Madrid to play the Europa League tie with Atletico. Reja decided to follow the team even if he was still adamant that he was going to leave. Many managers were considered to take his place, including Bruno Giordano, but in the end the decision was to choose Zola. All was agreed between the parties, all Lotito needed to do was to have one last talk with Reja to close the relationship. But then Reja changed his mind and stayed, so no Zola.
In July he signed for Watford in the Championship. He managed to reach the playoffs but Watford lost in the final against Norwich City. He was confirmed also for the next year but after five consecutive defeats he resigned in December.
On Christmas Eve 2014 he became the new Cagliari manager in place of Zdenek Zeman, but was sacked after 11 games. In August he became manager of Al-Arabi in Qatar taking the team to 8th place. He was sacked at the end of the season. On December 14 2016 he was chosen as manager for Birmingham replacing Gary Rowett. In 24 games under Zola, they won just twice and he resigned in April.
On July 18 2018, Zola became assistant to new Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri. Under the former Lazio head coach, the Blues won the Europa League. When Sarri was replaced by Frank Lampard, Zola left too.
After this experience he did a bit of punditry on Italian and British TV channels, then on February 9 2023, he became vice president of the Italian Professional Football League (the new Serie C).
Gianfranco Zola was an exciting and flamboyant player who delighted all the clubs where he played. He did not have much luck with the national team as he was unlucky to have played in the same role as Roberto Baggio, but for many Zola was a much better player. And he was very, very close to being Lazio manager.
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