"A legend, Gianfranco Zola isn`t just a Calcio star but a world class one. The small Italian arrived to Stamford Bridge in November 1996 and made such a dramatic impact and turned in such a series of devastating displays that he eventually won the Player of the Year award after just 6 months in the English game.
He won the Italian Championship in 1990 with Napoli where he became Maradonas successor. Born in Sardinia in 1966, he had won the Serie C2 Championship in 1987, moving to Serie A two years later. In 1991 he won the Italian Super Cup with Napoli and made his national debut in Arrigo Sacchis first game in charge up front next to Vialli. After joining Parma in 1993 for £1.4m he won the European Super Cup and the UEFA Cup, was a runner-up in the European Cup Winners Cup, Italian Championship and Italian Cup, played in the 1994 World Cup and 1996 European Championships, and was second and third in consecutive years in the Serie A goal scoring list.
He scored in nearly every other game for Parma, and had a phenomenal record from free-kicks. Like Maradona, he is small but immensely strong and can go past people with ease. He arrived at Chelsea in November 97 for £4.5m having played 26 times for Italy, scoring 7 goals. He seemed intent on running his own one man goal of the season competition with a series of spectacular strikes. The partnership he struck up with Mark Hughes propelled Chelsea to the FA Cup victory, and he topped the Chelsea assists stats despite only joining in November.
Established as a Chelsea legend, 'Marazola' leaved the club weeks before Abramovich's take over and when the Russian tried to persuade him to stay he declined the invitation joining Serie B side Cagliari as he wants to take his family there.
Quite simply a wonderful person off the pitch as well as on it and one of the best players, and some would say THE best, ever to play for Chelsea. What more can you say." ~Football Database (archived version, circa 2007)
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Source: Consolemania, April 1998 (#73) || Dizionario dei Videogiochi; Pastore Andrea (via The Internet Archive)
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