The life and career of Gianfranco Zola
Italian football has produced some of the best players in the history of the sport, so there is no denying that some players don't get the recognition they deserve throughout the years. Gianfranco Zola was a big name during the 90s, but of course, the younger generation of football fans are not that familiar with him.
Serie A days
During the 80s, and at a very young age, Zola began his career at the lower divisions of Italian football, playing for clubs like Nuorese and Torres. He would be signed by Napoli in 1989, with the club nurturing his talent as he learned from Diego Maradona, who also happened to have a good friendship with the Argentinian legend."Diego was like an older brother for me," Zola told La Repubblica newspaper in 2025. "He taught me so much, I'll never forget it. His death was a hard blow. I knew about his lifestyle, but I'd never imagined he could die. He caught me unprepared. I spoke with (Ciro) Ferrara and (Antonio) Careca. It was so painful. We talked about games, trainings, victories and laughs. Not many defeats. Diego was great, it's wrong to describe him hastily. Who was lucky enough to play with him only received good things."
While Maradona eventually left after 1991 because of his drug ban, Zola went on to become the star of the team for the following two seasons, slowly making his way into stardom. However, because of financial reasons, the club had to sell him to Parma in 1993, which angered the fans.
Zola won multiple trophies during his coupled of years with Parma and this is when he established himself as one of the league's top players. However, during the 1995/96 season, manager Carlo Ancelotti struggled to adjust him into the 4-4-2 formation, which resulted in a period of frustration for the player.
This would all change when he got the offer to join English side Chelsea.
"In that period, when there was this discussion, Chelsea offered him a good contract and he decided to go," Carlo Ancelotti said in 2009 about selling Zola. "I think it was a mistake. It was my first experience in Serie A and I was not able to change the system. I preferred to maintain the system that I knew well. For this, Gianfranco had a different decision to make. But a lot of time has passed since and now we have a good relationship. He would probably not have gone to Chelsea if I had changed the system, but he had a wonderful experience here at Chelsea and all the fans here remember his performances."
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Gianfranco Zola here as an assistant coach for Chelsea, after his playing career ended
Chelsea days and retirement
From the moment he joined Chelsea in November of 1996 until leaving the club in 2003, Zola was unquestionably the best player the club had until that point. He was a magician who elevated the side and added a lot of quality to it, especially during the late 90s and early 2000s when the Blues were slowly getting better and more competitive as a team."I wanted a new experience and I was certainly looking forward to having an experience abroad. Chelsea had Di Matteo, Vialli, and Gullit," Zola said to the Chelsea website in 2024. "I remember when I met Luca with the national team he spoke so highly about the experience of playing here, of the team, the league, and all the supporters. It was something I was thinking about and when things were not going very well with Parma and they asked me if I wanted to go to Chelsea, I said yes with no doubts. It was the best decision I ever made."
Even during the 2002/03 season, his last one for the club, he managed to score 16 goals across all competitions, which would his highest tally with the institution. It is a testament to his consistency and ability to overcome the odds, with Zola being voted Chelsea's greatest-ever player that same year.
However, it is even somewhat fitting that he would leave during Abramovich's summer arrival, almost like ending one era and starting another one. Furthermore, he would join Cagliari because of very specific reasons.
"After so many years abroad, I want to exhibit myself - if we can put it like that - in front of my land and in front of my people," he told The Guardian in August 2003. "It's something I feel a great deal. More than any other thing it draws me, fascinates me, stimulates me."
However, while he did play well for Cagliari and managed to give them a few good memories, his time with the Italy national team wasn't as good.
"I became a football player because I watched Italy win the 1982 World Cup and wanted to follow those footsteps," Zola said about his career with the Italian national team during his playing career in 2024. "That's why when I missed the penalty at EURO '96, I suffered so very much. It was like a light went off inside me and I just could not react to that moment."
All in all, Gianfranco Zola was a magician and one of the best players of his generation and one of the best to ever wear the Chelsea shirt. And in these modern times, he deserves a lot more appreciation.