Fabio Cannavaro 2006

Fabio CAN NAVARO

Azzurri triumph…Cannavaro was central to Italy’s victory

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The case for the defence

Italy’s World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro is one of a rare breed, and wasted no time in attributing his success in lifting a number of individual player awards to the support of his team-mates, both at former club Juventus and Italy.

“It is thanks to them that I have been able to show my qualities on the pitch,” said the 33-year-old World Cup-winning captain, now at Real Madrid, and whose prizes have included Wor ld Soccer’s Player of the Year award and France Football’s Ballon d’Or, the European Footballer of the Year prize. “So I must thank my Juve team-mates and all my colleagues from the national team.”

Cannavaro was born and brought up in Naples and was a ball boy at Napoli’s Stadio San Paolo at the height of the Maradona mania in the late 1980s. He was even a ball boy when Maradona’s Argentina beat Italy on penalties in the World Cup semi-final of 1990.

Months later, Cannavaro and Maradona found themselves at even closer quarters when the Italian was assigned to mark Argentina’s captain in a practice game. Cannavaro apparently went in so hard that one coach told him to ease up, only for Maradona to call out: “You’re doing fine, carry on as you are.”

Claudio Ranieri handed him his firstteam debut in March 1993, a 4-3 defeat by Juventus. Two years later he joined Parma, but was sad to leave. Cannavaro says: “I know Naples has a particular reputation but it is a very special city, my city. Some of it is not safe but you can say that about most big cities. I was very lucky to become a professional footballer. Some of the kids I grew up with are no longer with us because of drugs or crime.

“Fortunately my family was very solid, and then, when I was growing up, the city was mad about Maradona. I used to play football in the streets as kids do now and I am proud about Naples and for them through my achievements – though I do not kid myself I will ever come close to Maradona in the city’s affections, no matter how many awards I get.”

Cannavaro stayed with Parma for seven seasons, where he formed a tight defensive unit with future Juve colleagues Gigi Buffon and Lilian Thuram, played European football every season and won the UEFA Cup in 1999.

World Cup winner… Cannavaro

By then, Cannavaro had also become a national team regular, had starred at the 1998 World Cup and was an obvious fundraising asset when Parma’s finances began to creak. Thus, he moved to Inter, where he spent three unsettled, belowpar seasons before being “rescued” by Juventus in 2004 by a combination of coach Fabio Capello and notorious general manager Luciano Moggi.

As for the Calciopoli match-fixing issue, the defender says: “We players knew nothing. What I do know is that our quality was proved by the fact that eight Juventus players, Italian and French, were in the World Cup final.”

The inquiry, which produced a stream of sensational revelations, worked in Italy’s favour at the World Cup, encouraging a siege mentality that coach Marcello Lippi and skipper Cannavaro wielded to powerful effect within the dressing room.

So Italy went on to win the final on penalties against France in the German capital, which earned Cannavaro, playing his 100th international for the Azzurri, his new nickname of the “Berlin Wall”.

He says: “Those of us from Juventus felt in particular we needed to prove that what we had won we had won out on the pitch. We were disappointed the prizes we had earned were taken away from us. Inter’s players know they did not deserve

it [Inter were named champions after the 2005-06 title was stripped from Juve]. There was a clear gap in class between us.”

Italy conceded only two goals en route to the final, with Cannavaro giving his finest display in the semi-final against Germany in Dortmund.

The failure of the major attacking stars to shine in Germany opened the door to Cannavaro’s award success, according to former Brazil wing-back Leonardo. He says: “He benefited because this was a merely average World Cup, technically. Cannavaro has a low centre of gravity, which means he is very fast. He reads the game well and always arrives before the forward when he tackles. He has incredible concentration, inner strength and is superbly fit. He is not very tall but he is rarely beaten in the air because he jumps so well. He also has great charisma and people clearly like him.”

Cannavaro had helped Juventus to a second successive Serie A title last season but their subsequent demotion to Serie B prompted his instant, if reluctant, departure for Real Madrid. He says: “If I had been much younger it would not have occurred to me to leave Juventus. Last season was outstanding for me. I played in 36 matches and scored four goals, all decisive. But when you are past 30 other priorities cut in.”

The defender blames his slow start at Madrid on the World Cup hangover that has affected so many other senior players. He says: “A lot of top clubs made a mixed start because their World Cup players were catching up on fitness and form. The players of Italy, France, Germany and Portugal [the semi-finalists] were all up to a month later coming back to work than players of nations eliminated in the first round in Germany.

“It really was an exhausting experience, both physically and mentally...but, of course, also highly rewarding.”

Unsurprisingly the World Cup dominated our awards, as judged by you, to determine the world’s best players over the past 12 months.

Cannavaro is only the second defender to win Wor ld Soccer’s top prize in the awards’ 25-year history, after compatriot Paolo Maldini in 1994. But his margin of victory was one of the highest.

Cannavaro took over 40 per cent of the votes, more than three times as many as Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry of Arsenal and France, who finished second and third.

Cannavaro’s personal standing appears to have been unaffected by the crisis that engulfed Italian football, and Juventus in particular.

Eto’o’s position as runner-up is a tribute to his Champions League and Spanish league success with Barcelona, while Henry was on the losing side in both the World Cup final and the Champions League final, the two major competitions of the year. Ronaldinho, the award winner of the past two years, finished only fourth – a reflection of his poor form for Brazil at the World Cup.

Italy’s World Cup victory was also the decisive factor in the Manager award, with Marcello Lippi a clear winner ahead of Barcelona’s Dutchman Frank Rijkaard and Germany ’s Jurgen Klinsmann, but it was not to be a clean sweep for Italy, since Barcelona took the Team award.

Barca also triumphed in the Young Player award – only the second time we have cast votes for this category – their Argentinian starlet Lionel Messi seeing off the challenge of Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas and Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo.

Cannavaro is only the second defender to win World Soccer’s top prize in the awards’ 25-year histor y

Top 10 Players of 2006

Player Club Country % of vote 1) Fabio Cannavaro Juventus/Real Madrid Italy 40.1 2) Samuel Eto’o Barcelona Cameroon 12.6 3) Thierry Henry Arsenal France 12.1 4) Ronaldinho Barcelona Brazil 8.2 5) Gianluigi Buffon Juventus Italy 4.9 6) Didier Drogba Chelsea Ivory Coast 3.3 7) Juan Roman Riquelme Villarreal Argentina 2.1 8) Miroslav Klose Werder Bremen Germany 1.6 9) Kaka Milan Brazil 1.4 10) Deco Barcelona Por tugal 1.3

Third…World Cup and Champions League runner-up Thierry Henry

Other World Soccer Award winners 2006

Coaching masterclass…Lippi

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Marcello Lippi, Italy TEAM OF THE YEAR: Barcelona

Youth and experience… Messi battles Cannavaro

YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Lionel Messi, Barcelona & Argentina