He may not have won the number of trophies if some players who have followed him, but make no mistake, Gianfranco Zola perishes as one of the biggest players ever in Chelsea – and he cost them only £ 4.5 million.
Zola left Chelsea in 2003, less than a week before Roman Abramovich completed his takeover of the club. While the blues were built in 2005 for their first Premier League title, Zola saw his career at Cagliari.
But what he won – or not won – at Stamford Bridge is not relevant. He gave joy in other ways. For everyone who saw him playing, few can compare. And as bargains go, there have been little better.
Chelsea was about to revolution. Ruud Gullit had taken over in the summer of 1996 from the boss of New England Glenn Hoddle, but this was not the Chelsea we know today.
They had not won a big trophy since the Cup Winners' Cup, after which they were for most of the 20 years of youns between the first and second divisions. The six seasons prior to Gullit's appointment had finished twice and 14th twice.
It was now a stick-or-twist time for Chelsea, and regardless of his great reputation as a player, naming Gullit as a player manager was a daring left field movement for Chelsea.
He was just the third manager once from outside the UK and Ireland who took the lead over an English club, in the footsteps of the disastrous duo Joseph Venglos in Aston Villa and Ossie Ardiles in Tottenham.
In the first place, the Chelsea board would not have made that kind of agreement if they were not going to do Gullit to do things in his own way. Sexy football was on the way.
That summer – the first after the ratification of the Bosman statement – saw the first major influx of foreign players to Premier League clubs, giving the competition of the competition only two managers in language, culture, exploration and reputation.
Arsenal signed Remi Garde and Patrick Vieira on the advice of incoming boss Arsene Wger, while Gullit looked at Italy, where he had spent eight prominent years as a player before he came to Chelsea.
In midfielder Roberto di Matteo from Lazio came in a club record transfer of £ 4.9 million and striker Gianluca Vialli from Juventus on a free transfer.
It may not seem like an invasion now, but until that moment the only Italian who ever played in the Premier League was Nottingham Forest Flop Andrea Silenzi.
For £ 4.5 million in 1996, Chelsea could have had:
-than a third of Alan Shearer (Blackburn to Newcastle, £ 15 million)
– 78% of Nicky Barmby (Middlebough to Everton, £ 5.75 million)
– Sasa Curcic and Change (Bolton to Aston Villa, £ 4m)
It is remarkable that Gianfranco Zola did not play top football until he was 23 years old, after he had spent the first five years of his professional career playing series C Sides Nuoreesis and Torres, both located in Zola's native Sardinia.
Zola was finally noticed by Napoli General Manager Luciano Moggi – now better known for his share in the Calciopoli scandal of 2006 – and then transferred the Tyrrhenian Sea to play next to Diego Maradona, who remarked: “Finally we have someone who is smaller Then smaller than me. “
His first season ended in the Serie A Triumph then Zola – already an accomplished player – took a few tips and tricks from the Maestro.
Maradona and his influence was that great that there is little contradiction in Zola who was quoted separately and said that both “I already knew how to play a little” and “I learned everything from Diego Maradona”.
Zola turned out to be the perfect successor to the great Argentinian, even picked by Maradona herself to inherit Napoli's No.10 shirt.
Unfortunately, financial difficulties came to the Neopolitan outfit after Maradona's departure on a drug ban, which meant that they had to sell their best players to survive.
That meant that Zola would go to Parma in 1993, where he won the UEFA Cup and enjoyed the best goals in his career, achieved 47 goals in 94 league games in his three full seasons in the club.
However, 1996 was not a happy year for Zola, either at club or international level.
For Italy he was made the national scapegoat for the humiliating exit of the humiliating group of Euro 96 after he missed a penalty in their last match, a scoreless draw with final winners Germany, allowing the non -planted Czech Republic to move forward in Italy.
And things didn't get any better when Zola returned home: the new Parma manager Carlo Ancelotti was unjustified in his compliance with a 4-4-2 with a flat front two, so that no place could be in the side for Zola, who always Had played, who had always played just behind the most important striker.
Zola left that in search of a new club, preferably in a new country, and England seemed obvious target.
At the time, Zola met Manchester, Newcastle and Tottenham, but after his experience with Ancelotti, Zola will know that what he really needed was an ambitious manager who knew how to appreciate sexy football …
The independent announced the signing of Zola for Chelsea like this: “It happened that Parma wanted to release Zola after he had fallen out with their coach, Carlo Ancelotti, and the Italian club will undoubtedly be very happy with such compensation for A 30 year old. “
Oh dear. Zola may not have been the youngest player, but he was an immediate hit. It was not long before he impressed and demonstrated that it was in fact Chelsea who had reason for jubilation that he had paid as little as she was.
As Scott Minto said to Sky Sports: “Only when he arrived and you saw him on the training field did you suddenly realize that you were in the presence of something special. His first touch, I've never seen anything like that. “
His first three games for Chelsea did not yield any goals for the Italian, but his next five yielded the equivalent of a goal to get the side from a winless run of five games.
Despite the fact that he only signed in November 1996 and made his debut in the 13th game of the blues of the season, he only ended the season that was shy to be the top scorer of Chelsea in all competitions, and claimed the Football Writers' Association Player of the Year.
He is the only player in the 71-year history of the prize it has won after he has moved the middle season, and one of only two players who have claimed it in his debut season in England (Jurgen Klinsmann is the other).
The eight competition goals that Zola scored in 1996-97 made a difference of nine points for the Premier League campaign from Chelsea, without which they would have been finished eighth and closer to the degradation zone than the top of the table.
As it was, they enjoyed a sixth place, the joint of the club in the second best since third place ended in 1970.
Zola's presence and goals also helped Chelsea to win their first piece of silverware in 26 years while they defeated Middlesbrough 2-0 in a memorable cup final. It may sound strange now, but Chelsea became the favorite team of much neutral.
Zola helped Chelsea to be firmly established as a solid top-six team that always did well in the cups and the League Cup, another Cup winner cup, another FA Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Charity Shield added to the collection .
After decades of yo-yo-in-darkness, Chelsea finally had a team that they could be really proud of, and much of them was due to the 5'6 ”wizard with no. 25-a shirt nobody had the balls to wear For Chelsea left since Zola, despite the fact that it is not formally retired by the club.
But more than that, it was the style. As the theme was for the rest of Zola's career, his goals were usually as perfectly hit free-hack-all Beckham scored more in the Premier League or as great solo efforts with at least one piece fast, fleet, fleet-footed deception No other player would think to try.
The highly improved status of Chelsea helped Roman Abramovich to attract to the club, but simply too late for the Russian to extend the contract of Zola: he had already concluded an oral agreement with series B Cagliari, back on his native Sardinia.
Abramovich tried to seduce Zola to refrain from the deal and return a year ago to Chelsea – at the age of 36, he had been Chelsea's top scorer with 16 goals when the side finished – but faithful to his character, he refused to break his word.
Cagliari had spent four years in the Serie B, but Zola inspired them to return to Serie A before he stayed another season to make sure they stay up. They finished 12th, with Zola, a memorable towering header-ja scored, real-in the 89th minute of a 1-1 draw with champions Juventus on home grass.
It is proof of Zola's enormous popularity that when he moved to Cagliari, those present rose 65%. After hung his boots in 2005, they fell back to their previous levels – despite the fact that Cagliari was now an established Serie A -side.
Zola won trophies everywhere where he played, from Napoli to Parma to Chelsea to Cagliari, but more than that, he won hearts. Can you put a price on that? £ 4.5 million seems far too low.
By Steven Chicken
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