GIANFRANCO ZOLA
Chris Dunlavy profiles the career of the Birmingham City manager
GIANFRANCO Zola was 22 and playing for Sardinian minnows Torres when he was called to see the club president.
It was the spring of 1989 and an offer of 80m lira had been accepted from Virtus Entella, a division higher in Serie B.
Walter Alvisi, the Entella vice-president, recalls his excitement. “Zola had scored against us earlier in the season,” he said. “A crazy goal, a shot that was virtually unstoppable. He had great talent, so when our sporting director, Gianni Comini, said he had cut a deal it was hard to believe him.”
Zola was equally enthused. At just 5ft 6in, the son of a Sardinian lorry driver had spent his teenage years being overlooked. Too small, too weak. He was 18 before even an amateur side offered a trial and, by 1989, was more than happy to clamber up another rung.
Yet, unbeknown to both parties, someone else was watching – Luciano Moggi, sporting director of Napoli. “I’d watched Zola play from a young age and quickly realised he was winning games by himself,” said Moggi. “He was small, fragile. Nobody believed in him. But I did.”
Hearing of Entella’s bid, he waved 800m lira at Torres. Alvisi received a phone call saying Zola wouldn’t be coming after all. “I gambled,” added Moggi. “It was the best shot of my career.”
Moggi is a disgraced figure now. His involvement in the 2006 match-fixing scandal and subsequent comments about homosexuality ended any dealings in football.
On this score, however, he deserves our gratitude. Without Moggi, Zola may never have become the legendary figure adored on these shores.
But for his ‘gamble’, we may never have seen those scampering feet, the wonderful goals against Norwich, West Ham and Manchester United, the languidly beautiful free-kicks, the 1000-megawatt smile that lit up Stamford Bridge.
Fantastic
“He was a fantastic player and I loved watching him,” said Sir Alex Ferguson, who called Zola the greatest player of the Premier League era. “That smile! He was never perturbed by who he was playing against. I admired him so much.”
On signing for Chelsea in 1996, Zola discovered the only shirt small enough was a children’s size. Yet, in every other sense, England fitted the striker’s style far better than his homeland.
Personally schooled by Diego Maradona at Napoli, he was encouraged to run and dribble, to express the artistry that would eventually lead the great Argentinean to proclaim Zola his natural successor.
“Football for me has always been happiness,” said the man nicknamed Magic Box. “About improvisation and joy, not fear of making mistakes.”
Unfortunately, Italian football in the early 90s was characterised by tactical rigidity, positional discipline and the supremacy of defence. Zola was a man out of time.
Sold to Parma in 1993, he scored prolifically but was never truly embraced by their fans who felt his arrival had disrupted a winning formula. Neither was he trusted by Italy manager Arrigo Sacchi, who awarded just 35 caps.
By 1996, aged 30, playing second fiddle to Hristo Stoichkov and unwanted by Parma boss Carlo Ancelotti, Zola headed for Chelsea. Seven years later, he was voted the Blues’ greatest ever player.
“He was a little genius,” said Dennis Wise, the Chelsea skipper and the man who taught Zola his unique brand of Cockney English. “The best player I ever saw and we were lucky to have him.”
Ruud Gullit, the man who signed him, added. “He was a player who could decide a game with his vision and technique. He had the ability to open up a defence in any situation.” Peter Schmeichel, the legendary Manchester United keeper, echoed Ferguson’s thoughts. “I could never tell where he was going to shoot,” said the Dane. “He was unplayable and read the game like no other.” If Italy had eyed Zola’s skills with suspicion, English fans – of all hues – embraced them. And the feeling was mutual. “I feel at home here,” said Zola in 1998. “Because there is no fanaticism. The game is a party, rooting for the person expressing
himself, not the person stopping him.” Yet, if Zola’s skills captured the imagination, his personality won hearts. Warm, generous, he would spend hours developing the skills of John Terry and Frank Lampard.
Gabriella Saba, the Italian journalist, described this strange empathy. “It was born from admiration but fed by respect,” she said. “For that guy next door, reserved but helpful, human and humble, the portrait of an anti-star.”
Wise laughs at the nice guy image. “I’ve seen him get the hump like anybody else, but he is a cracking fella. For me, his biggest asset would be his honesty. I believe he is not capable of telling a lie.”
Qualities that have made Zola a popular manager, if not yet successful. In almost a decade at the helm of West Ham, Watford and Calgiari, the zenith was a Championship play-off final with the Hornets in 2013.
Sacked by Qatari side AlArabi in June, he has just won his first game in 11 attempts as Blues boss. Wise, though, is certain Zola will succeed.
“Whatever he does, he gives it everything. When he came to England he couldn’t hit a golf ball and now he’s playing off about four. He was very professional as a player, very stubborn, and he’s taken that into management.” Zola’s philosophy has never wavered. “Do something, anything,” he said. “Don’t let fear consume you.”