Carlo Cudicini

Carlo Cudicini (born September 6 1973 in Milan) is an Italy Football (soccer). He is the son of former A.C. Milan goalkeeper Fabio Cudicini and grandson of Ponziana Trieste defender Guglielmo Cudicini (deceased). He currently plays for Chelsea F.C], and is in competition for a first team place with Petr Čech and Henrique Hilário. He also regularily appears on English television to provide expert analysis on matches shown from Serie A.

Club Career

Early career

Cudicini found it hard to follow in his father's footsteps, only making 2 appearances for AC Milan (1991-95), in the Champions League, and none in Serie A. He was loaned to Como Calcio 1907 for a season in the Serie A 1993-94, and was subsequently transferred to A.C. Prato in 1995, and then to S.S. Lazio in 1996 where he suffered a wrist injury, and consequently only made one senior appearance. He then moved to Castel di Sangro Calcio in 1997, where his injury problems persisted, and was sold to Chelsea F.C. for a fee of £160,000 in 1999, where his career took off.

Chelsea

1999-2003

Despite a brief challenge from Mark Bosnich, Cudicini took over from Ed de Goeij almost instantly, and retained his first team place with a string of excellent performances.

He was voted Chelsea's Player of the Year for the FA Premier League 2001-02 by fans, reflecting the value he added to a team struggling for consistency. His cause was helped by a game against Liverpool F.C. in December 2001, which Chelsea won 4-0, during which he kept out an excellent shot from Steven Gerrard and a penalty taken by Gary McAllister. Incidentally, Chelsea beat Liverpool to 4th place in the league the following season, thus taking the final qualifying berth for the UEFA Champions League.

Cudicini was recognised as the best goalkeeper in the English Premier League in the FA Premier League 2002-03, when he the ITV "Golden Gloves" Premiership Goalkeeper of the Season award.

After a bright start to the FA Premier League 2003-04, the old injury problems experienced in his Lazio days came back, leaving him unable to carry on his success from last season and unable to play for a large portion of the season. His value to the team was highlighted when Chelsea's replacement goalkeeper Marco Ambrosio failed to effectively fit into the first team, leading to Chelsea's exit from the Champions League at the semi final stage to AS Monaco FC.

2004-05

The FA Premier League 2004-05 saw the arrival of new manager José Mourinho, and more crucially, the signing of Petr Čech, who claimed that he would push Cudicini for a first team place. As a result of Čech's excellent form, Cudicini was relegated to become back-up goalkeeper. As a result, he missed out on FA Premier League winner's medal in the two Chelsea championship-winning seasons due to not meeting the required number of appearances.

At the end of a steady FA Premier League 2005-06, he had saved six of the 12 penalties he had faced while between the posts for Chelsea, furthering his reputation as an excellent penalty stopper.

2006-07

After Petr Cech was named in the FIFPro and Champions League 2005-06 team of the season, there was a great deal of speculation about Cudicini's future at Chelsea, leading to Cudicini release a statement confirming that he was comfortable at Chelsea, and hoped to help the team capture its first ever Champions League title. He silenced rumours that he was looking for a return to Italy when he signed an extension to his Chelsea contract in February 2006. He is now contracted to Chelsea until the summer of 2009.

On October 14 2006, in a league game against Reading F.C], he was knocked unconscious and had to be stretchered off the pitch whilst wearing an oxygen mask after coming on as a substitute for first-choice goalkeeper Čech. Čech was believed to be sidelined for up to a year, leaving Cudicini as the most senior goalkeeper available at Chelsea. However, even though he has fully recovered and returned to training, Cudicini faced a battle to dislodge third-choice goalkeeper Henrique Hilario, who had been playing well in Čech's and Cudicini's absence. After Hilario conceded four goals in two matches Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho decided to put Cudicini in goal against Aston Villa in their fourth round match of the Carling Cup. Chelsea won that match 4 - 0 and Cudicini took over goal keeping duties from Hilario.

However, since returning to action in Chelsea's 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in late January 2007, Cech has kept both Cudicini and Hilario out of the first team.

International career

Cudicini has been capped for Italy national football team at Under-18 and Under-21 level, although he has not played competitively for the full national team. That led to speculation over the possibility of Cudicini representing the England national football team because he was eligible to do so after spending five years in England. Despite his eligibility, Cudicini has never shown any desire to play for the England team, and has never played for England at any level.

Honours

Chelsea

- FA Cup (FA Cup Final 2000)

- FA Community Shield (2000)

- Football League Cup (Football League Cup Final 2005)

- FA Cup (FA Cup Final 2007)