FABIO CANNAVARO
A Fabio Cannavaro biography has many highlights, but it is not complete unless you include the 2006/2007 season, the best season in his career. It was back in 1972 that Franz Beckenbauer won the Golden Ball award, being the first defender in history to ever receive this trophy.Outside of earlier win by Lev Yashin, who played as a goalkeeper, only strikers or attacking midfielders managed to get hold of this prestigious trophy. After Beckenbauer won it, many thought it was an extraordinary exception and the new age of soccer, where strikers are the big heroes, will never see another defender win it.
34 years have passed since then and the above mentioned "prophecy" was true, until Fabio Cannavaro had to say something about it…But before going so far with this Fabio Cannavaro biography, let’s take a quick peek at his career.
Being born in Naples, Fabio Cannavaro was a huge fan of locals SSC Napoli, which were at the top of their game when Fabio was growing up. With Diego Maradona and Ciro Ferrara in the team, Napoli won the league title (the Scudetto) and determined the young Cannavaro to take up soccer at the club's youth team. He spent some time close to his favorite stars, beinga ball boy for the team in home matches.
However in just a couple of years, young footballer Fabio Cannavaro's dream came true: he was selected for the first squad, given a professional contract and was able to play alongside some of his childhood heroes, who were now long standing veterans in the team.
On March 7th 1993, he played his first match in a league that will not forget him too soon, Serie A. The coincidence is that his debut was made on one of the stadiums that will mark his entire career, Juventus' Delle Alpi. However, losing some of their stars, including Maradona, made Napoli sink in the table and in desperate need of funds, they had to sell Fabio Cannavaro to rivals AC Parma.
At Parma, Fabio Cannavaro found an excellent environment for a defender, as Parma was always considered a tough nut to crack due to their solid defenses over time.
On this particular occasion, Parma's defense consisted of Gianluigi Buffon in the goal and Fabio Cannavaro and Frenchman Lilliam Thuram in the center. All three players will soon prove their world class status, as they will be crowned World Champions in the following years.
With Fabio Cannavaro in the team and coach Carlo Ancelotti on the bench, Parma had two miraculous seasons, having their best league table finish ever in 1997-1998 (second place, 1 point behind champions Juventus) and winning the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia next year.
Their success sparked the interest of major Italian clubs, with coach Carlo Ancelotti moving to Milan, Thuram and Buffon moving to Juventus and Fabio Cannavaro being signed by Internazionale Milano, in what was then a shocking fee for a defender, 32 million euros.
A Fabio Cannavaro Biography cannot skip the important period the player spent at the nerrazzuri club, but Inter was definitely not his career's apogee.
It wasn't the best period for Inter, as they didn't manage to win any titles or important trophies in the two years spent by Fabio Cannavaro with the club (in 2002/2003 Inter finished second in the league, while in 2003/2004 they finished fourth).
Being a trophy-hungry personality, Fabio Cannavaro agreed to a move to rivals Juventus, especially since he would rejoin the majestic defensive trio from Parma, together with Thuram and Buffon.
During the Juventus period, Fabio Cannavaro had some huge satisfactions but he also suffered one of his biggest career shocks.
Winning the title with Juventus in 2005 and 2006 finally acknowledged him as a champion, also winning another prestigious Italian award, the "Oscar del Calcio: Migliore difensore", an award given to the best defender in the Italian league each year and an award Fabio was runner-up for 3 consecutive years.
Coped with the league successes, Fabio Cannavaro also had a dream come true with his national team, as Italy marched on to win the 2006 World Cup, in a memorable final against France, where Fabio and his Juventus colleague Buffon had to confront ex trio component Lilliam Thuram.
An enormously solid performance at the World Cup and the great run with Juventus in the league had Fabio Cannavaro nominated to the Golden Ball award, being considered a serious competitor for Golden Ball favorite Zinedine Zidane.
Many say that if it wasn't for Zidane's headbutt in the last minutes of the World Cup final and his sending off in the last match of his career, Fabio Cannavaro would have lost the Golden Ball, but as things developed, the trophy ended up in his hands and with this, in the hands of the second defender in history, after Franz Beckenbauer (who won it twice, in 1972 and 1976).
However, Cannavaro couldn't enjoy his impressive success in 2006 for too long, as the Calciopoli scandal was sparked, with Juventus being sent in the second division and deducted 9 points. Being at an age and professional level where he couldn't allow a complete downfall and also being a very trophy-hungry footballer, Fabio Cannavaro signed for Real Madrid, following Juventus coach Fabio Capello and his team mate Emerson.
