GIANFRANCO ZOLA FACTFILE

Born: Oliena, Italy, 1966 (Age 50) Playing career: A striker or playmaker, Zola was 23 before he got his break in pro football, playing for Sardinian sides Corrasi Oliena, Nuorese and Torres before being spotted by Napoli scouts in 1989. Though he struggled to break into a team featuring Maradona and Careca, Zola soon became a regular, scoring 32 goals in 105 games. A 1993 move to Parma brought 49 goals in 102 games, with Zola playing in both the 1994 World Cup and Euro ’96. He joined Chelsea for £4.5m in November 1996 and won the FWA player of the year in the same season. Zola spent eight years at Stamford Bridge, scoring 80 goals in 312 matches, before retiring in 2005 after two seasons at Cagliari. Managerial career: Zola started coaching in 2006, becoming assistant to Pierluigi Casiraghi with Italy Under- 21s. They took Italy to the quarter-finals of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but Zola left after being offered the chance to replace Alan Curbishley at West Ham in 2008. He led the Hammers to finishes of ninth and 17th – the latter amid a financial crisis – before being sacked in May 2010. Zola took over at Watford in July 2012, taking the Hornets to third place and a play-off final defeat by Crystal Palace in his first season. Dismissed in December 2013 after a bad run of results, he then spent ten games in charge of Cagliari and 26 at the helm of Qatari side Al-Arabi, as well as coaching Italy’s Under-16s. He was named manager of Birmingham on December 14.