Fabio Cannavaro

Fabio Cannavaro, Italian orders of merit, (born September 13, 1973, Naples, Italy, is an Italy Football (soccer) and captain of Italy who currently plays for Real Madrid. He is strong in the air, despite his lack of height, and possesses excellent timing, speed and anticipation, Cannavaro is rated as one of the world's best defenders. He was selected for the FIFPro World XI 2006 team, and is also the current European Footballer of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year.

Cannavaro has played for his hometown club S.S.C. Napoli (1992-95), Parma F.C] (1995-2002), F.C. Internazionale Milano (2002-04) and Juventus FC (2004-2006) during his career in Serie A, before moving to Real Madrid in the Spanish La Liga.

Club career

Born in Naples and coming from a footballing family (his father Pasquale played for local side S.S.C. Giugliano[nterNapoli.it]), Cannavaro's talent was quickly spotted by scouts from local club Napoli, who were enjoying the most successful period of their history. The team which included Diego Maradona and Ciro Ferrara had just won the Scudetto.

Cannavaro started out as a ball boy at the Stadio San Paolo and his progress was such that he became a member of the first team alongside some of his childhood idols. Cannavaro's Serie A debut came on 7 March 1993, at Turin’s Stadio Delle Alpi against Juventus. Unfortunately, post-Maradona Napoli were in desperate need of funds and were soon forced to sell Cannavaro to Parma F.C].

At Parma, Cannavaro initially began to win plaudits from a wider audience and establish himself as an extremely talented defender. Together with his defensive partner Lilian Thuram and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Gialloblù became renowned as the team with one of the best defences in Serie A. Under the guidance of coach Carlo Ancelotti, they helped the club to its best ever league finish in 1997, finishing second, a point behind the champions Juventus. In 1998-99, Parma won the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia amongst other trophies. Fabio's individual prowess was recognised in the form of the Albo d'Oro (or Oscar del Calcio: Migliore difensore): literally the oscar for best defender in Italy award. Cannavaro was named runner-up 3 years in a row (2000, 2001, 2002) as the Migliore difensore. Note that Fabio would later win this award in 2005.

In the summer of 2002, Cannavaro joined Internazionale for a fee of €32 million. After a two year stint at the Nerazzurri, he signed for Juventus. Fabian Carini left Juventus, when he was exchanged for Fabio Cannavaro in a transfer which was worth 10 Million Euro. In coming to Turin, he re-joined his ex-Parma partners Lilian Thuram and Gigi Buffon, to reform one of the most successful defensive line-ups in Serie A, and enabling Cannavaro to win his first scudetto with Juventus in 2005 and a second the following season in 2006. Juventus captain Cannavaro won l'Oscar del Calcio: Migliore difensore, the Football Oscar, for his exceptional debut season at the Turin giants.

After the 2006 World Cup, the Calciopoli trial verdicts relegated Juventus FC to Serie B and stripped the club of its 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 Scudetti. Cannavaro, mindful of his age and the imminent prospect of two years of the club not being able to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, decided to leave La Vecchia Signora. Cannavaro said that "Even if I know this may be hard to believe, I would have stayed at Juventus had they remained in Serie A – even with a 30-point deduction."[ccompanied one of his team mates, Emerson and in doing so re-joined his former Juve coach Fabio Capello at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, the home of Real Madrid. Although no fee was confirmed by either club, press speculation has often set the combined transfer's worth at roughly 20 million euros.

On July 25, Fabio Cannavaro officially became a Real Madrid player, with a three year contract and the number 5 jersey, which previously belonged to Manuel Sanchís and Zinedine Zidane. He scored his first goal for the club on August 18, 2006 in a friendly match against Real Betis. On his 33rd birthday, Real Madrid played against Olympique Lyonnais in the Champion League losing 2-0; Cannavaro was at fault for both goals, his performances were not of his best form in the first half of the season in Spain, which was mostly blamed on a World Cup hangover, however Coach Fabio Capello, kept faith in him and his second half of the season was much better. On June 17, 2007, Fabio Cannavaro & Real Madrid clinched the La Liga title, Real's first in four years.

International career

Fabio Cannavaro's first taste of international success came over a decade ago under coach Cesare Maldini with Italy's U-21 side, winning consecutive European Under-21 Football Championship titles in 1994 and 1996. In 1996, he participated in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

In the national team, Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta have combined very effectively to form the basis of the Italian central defence for 10 years. He has played for his country in the 1998, 2002, and Football World Cup 2006 Football World Cup, as well as 2000 European Football Championship and Euro 2004. Cannavaro made his international debut in January 1997 against Northern Ireland and has since earned 111 cap (sport). Only Paolo Maldini (126 caps) and Dino Zoff (112 caps) have appeared in more games for Italy.

Cannavaro's first international tournament came at 1998 FIFA World Cup under his mentor Paolo Maldini, and the squad was coached by Maldini's father Cesare Maldini. Italy went out in the quarter-finals to hosts and eventual champions France; Cannavaro suffered a scar on his forehead from an elbow by Stephane Guivarc'h during the match. The match was decided by a penalty shoot-out after the teams were tied 0-0.

In 2000 UEFA European Championship, it was Les Bleus who once again shattered Italy's dreams. Cannavaro had a strong tournament and the Azzurri reached the final, where they led the then world champions 1-0 going into injury time. Near the end of regular time, Sylvain Wiltord found the equalizer, and an extra-time golden goal from David Trézéguet gave France the title.

At the 2002 FIFA World Cup he was credited with holding the defence together, almost single-handedly after Alessandro Nesta was injured against Croatia. Italy however went out amidst a refereeing controversy losing to co-hosts South Korea in the second round, again to a golden goal[ad a hard act to follow when he took over as captain from Maldini after the 2002 World Cup, but he quickly won the team over with his constant smile, laid-back Neapolitan approach and inspiring performances. After Maldini's international retirement he first captained Italy in a match at Napoli and received a standing ovation on the pitch where he sported the local side's colours between 1991 and 1995.[nly international goal was scored on May 30,2004 against Tunisia, Italy won 4-0.

2006 World Cup

Cannavaro captained Italy throughout their 2006 World Cup campaign.
One of his key performances came against Germany in the World Cup Semi-Finals Football World Cup 2006.

He earned a spot on the FIFA World Cup awards All-Star Team at the end of the competition - awarded by FIFA's Technical Study Group - alongside six other Italian teammates, Gianluigi Buffon, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Luca Toni, Francesco Totti and Gianluca Zambrotta. After victories in the Football World Cup 2006 World Cup, the Azzurri celebrated to the soundtrack of traditional Italian songs on Cannavaro's iPod.

He was runner up in the race for the FIFA World Cup awards Golden Ball, finishing behind French captain Zinedine Zidane. Those who voted for Cannavaro argued that he had played immaculately throughout the tournament, while Zidane only shone in the knockout phase of the competition; it was a close contest with Zidane polling 2012 points to Cannavaro's 1977. However, Zidane was arguably the most dominant player on his squad, compared to Cannavaro who faced competition from his teammates; notably Buffon who was named the tournament's best goalkeeper and outpolled Zidane and Cannavaro in Golden Ball Internet voting, and Pirlo who won the Bronze Ball.

His crowning moment was lifting the World Cup on July 9 2006, the night of his 100th cap. Cannavaro never received a single Yellow card or Misconduct (football) throughout the 690 minutes he played in the tournament. Along with Buffon, Cannavaro played every minute of every match in the tournament for Italy. The Italian defense conceded only two goals throughout the entire tournament, an own-goal against the United States men's national soccer team and a penalty in the final against France national football team.

Personal

With his fellow Napoletano Ciro Ferrara, Cannavaro has helped establish a charity foundation, Fondazione Cannavaro Ferrara, specialising in the procurement of cancer research equipment and surgery for special cases of cancer for a hospital in their native Naples.

Cannavaro was involved in a doping controversy in 1999, when playing for Parma in a UEFA cup tie against Marseille. Undercover camcorder footage taken from before the game showed Cannavaro receiving an intravenous injection in a hotel. Cannavaro denied any wrong doing, and was never charged with any doping offences.

His younger brother, Paolo Cannavaro, is also a defender, and plays for Napoli. The two brothers played alongside each other at Parma from 2000 until 2002, when Fabio left for Inter.

Fabio's agent is Gaetano Fedele.

FIFA World Player of the Year

On 18th December 2006 Fabio Cannavaro won the FIFA World Player of the Year award. He was quoted as saying, 'It is not normal for a defender to be sitting between Zinedine Zidane (Three times winner) and Ronaldinho (Twice winner)'. Fabio Cannavaro is the first (and so far only) defender in football history to be named the FIFA World Player of the Year (Paolo Maldini was runner-up in 1995) and he is also the oldest recipient of the coveted award.

Honours

National competitions

- 1 Scudetto (Juventus): 2004/05
- 2 Coppa Italia (Parma FC): 1999, 2002
- 1 Italian Super Cup (Parma FC): 1999
- 1 La Liga (Real Madrid): 2007

European competitions

- 1 UEFA Cup (Parma FC): 1999

International competitions

- 2 European Under-21 Football Championship: 1992-1994, 1994-1996
- 1 UEFA European Championship: 2000 (runner-up)
- 1 World Cup: 2006

Individual

- 1 UEFA Team of the Tornament: 2000
- 2 Oscar del Calcio - Migliore difensore (Albo d'Oro) : 2006, 2005 (Runner-up), 2001 (Runner-up), 2000 (Runner-up)
- 1 Oscar del Calcio - Migliore calciatore italiano : 2006
- 1 Silver Ball: 2006
- 1 World Cup All-Star Team: 2006
- 1 FIFpro World XI: 2006
- 1 FIFA World Player of the Year: 2006
- 1 World Soccer Awards: 2006
- 1 European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or): 2006
- 1 UEFA Team of the Year: 2006