Gianfranco Zola

Gianfranco Zola is a retired football player from Italy. He was born in 1966 in Oliena, Italy, and began his senior playing career at in 1984 Nuorese, where he played till 1986. Then he spent three seasons at Torres and in 1989 switched to Napoli. During his spell at Napoli Zola won Serie A title and Supercoppa Italiana. From 1993 to 1996 he played for Parma and at that period they won UEFA Cup, UEFA Super Cup and finished runner-up at UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.

In November 1996, Gianfranco Zola transferred to Chelsea for a fee of £4.5m. Initially he was used very often, in 1997 he was named the FWA Footballer of the Year, in 1999 and in 2003, by the end of his career at Chelsea he was named Chelsea Player of the Year.

Chelsea won the FA Cup twice, FA Charity Shield in 2000, in 1997/98 they won Football League Cup and UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, in 1998 they were UEFA Super Cup winners. As time had gone he started irregularly and the manager Claudio Ranieri began to give him less playing time along with other ageing players. All in all Zola l made 312 appearances for Chelsea and scored 80 goals. He left the club in 2003 and till 2005 he played for Cagliari Calcio.

In November 1991, Gianfranco Zola made his debut appearance for the Italy national team; all in all he featured in 35 matches and scored ten goals, retiring in 1997.

In 2006, he became an assistant manager of Italy U-21. In September 2008, Zola took charge of West Ham United and worked there until the summer of 2012, when he was appointed the manager of Watford. He had a successfull first season with the club and saw them reach play-off stages. However, Watford lost to Crystal Palace and stayed in the Championship. The following seasond was not as promising and Zola resigned in December 2013, following a disappointing run of matches.