Soccer Player Profile: Fabio Cannavaro
Fabio Cannavaro, born September 13, 1973 in Naples, Italy, is an Italian world cup winner and the current captain of the national team.
Over the span of his career Cannavaro has earned many football related distinctions. He is the first defender to ever win the ‘FIFA World Player of the Year’ and the first defender since Beckenbaur to be awarded the ‘European Footballer of the Year’, both of which he received in 2006.
He started playing football for a team called ‘Bagnoli’ before his talent was spotted and he was recruited to join ‘Napoli’, where he played in the youth team. While Cannavaro was at ‘Napoli they had their most successful spell to date, with players such as Maradona and Ciro Ferrara playing amongst their ranks. He made his debut for the team on March the 7th 1993, for a game against ‘Juventus’
But ‘Napoli’ were to eventually hit a rough spell financially and were forced to sell their star players, including Cannavaro, who was bought by ‘Parma’. At ‘Parma’ Cannavaro established himself as a gifted footballer in front of the world. Together with Thuram And Buffon, he formed one of the best defensive partnerships the world had ever seen.
In the summer of 2002, Italian giants ‘Internazionale’, signed Cannavaro from ‘Parma’. While at ‘Internazionale’, he along with the club reached the ‘Champions League’ semi-finals in the 2002-2003 season and also finished as runners up in the ‘Serie A’. In his second season for the club he was not as productive as he had to sit most of it out, due to injuries.
After two years with the ‘Nerazzuri’, he signed for ‘Juventus’. While at ‘Juventus’ he rejoined his former ‘Parma’ team mates Thuram and Buffon. This partnership helped Cannavaro and ‘Juventus’ win the ‘Scudetto’ in 2005. This was the first league title Cannavaro had ever won. After the 2006 world cup ‘Juventus’ were stripped of their 2004-2005, 2005-2006 league titles since the team was reported to have been involved in match fixing. Realizing that he wasn’t getting any younger Cannavaro decided to leave the team, since they weren’t even in the ‘Serie A’ any more.
Realising Cannavaro was avalible, ‘Real Madird’ didn’t even think twice before convincing him to join them. At the ‘Bernabeu’, Cannavaro re-joined his former ‘Juventus’ coach Fabio Capello. He joined ‘Madrid’ on a three year contract and the number five jersey. ‘Real Madrid’ won the la liga title in 2007, after a four year drought. Many thought this only happened due to the solid performances that Cannavaro put day in and day out at the back.
After his contract with ‘Madrid’ expired, Cannavaro decided to move back to ‘Juventus’. The season started in spectacular fashion, however the season eventually took a turn for the worse with the team barely qualifying for the ‘Europa League’ spot.
Not wanting to renew his contract with ‘Juventus’ at the end of the season, Cannavaro was a free agent. ‘Al Ahli’ of Dubai, took this opportunity to sign Cannavaro on a two year deal. This move will be complete after the current World Cup takes place.
Cannavaro made his debut for the Italian national team on the 22nd of January 1997. He played for his country in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups and is currently playing in the 2010 World cup tournament as well. He also played in the 2000 and 2004 ‘Euro’. Cannavaro was made captain of the national side in 2002, taking over from Maldini. His greatest feat came in the 2006 World Cup where he captained the side and helped them win the World Cup that year. He played every minute of every match for Italy during the course of the tournament. He also ended up runner up to the ‘Golden Ball’ behind Zidane.
Cannavaro has had a total of six hundred and forty three appearances for his club teams over the year. During which period he has managed to score seventeen times. He has also managed to score twice with the Italian national team, both of which came in frendlies against, Tunisia and Portugal.
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