Gianluca Zambrotta Biography
Gianluca Zambrotta (born February 19, 1977 in Como) is an Italian football player. He is comfortable playing on either wing as a defender or midfielder. He currently plays for Juventus of Serie A in a jersey numbered 19. Zambrotta started his career with his hometown team Como Calcio at the age of 17 in 1994. In his first season with Como in Serie B he played only one game. In 1995, Como were relegated to the Serie C1 and Zambrotta started to play more regularly for the first team.
In 1997, Zambrotta's Serie A career have begun when his great potential was spotted by the A.S. Bari boss Eugenio Fascetti. Zambrotta was snapped up by Fascetti after Bari had won promotion to the Serie A. In his first year in the top flight, Zambrotta was playing on the left wing and scored 2 goals in 27 appearances. In the 1998-99 season, following the departure of Nicola Ventola, Zambrotta exploded on to the scene. In Week 1, he scored the only goal of the game against Venezia after just 9 minutes into the first half. Zambrotta continued to shine and was the key figure for Bari's surprise start to the campaign. In Week 7, he scored the opening goal at San Siro and helped Bari to win the game 3-2 against Inter. In February 1999, the Italian Under-21 International was rewarded by the coach of Italy, Dino Zoff, for his impressive displays. He earned his first cap in a friendly against Norway. He became the first player of Bari to play for the national side in 50 years. Throughout the 1998-99 season, he made 32 appearances and got on the score sheet for 4 times. Halfway through this season, he was brought to the most successful club in Italy, Juventus, by Carlo Ancelotti for €15.85M and would play in the black-and-white jersey starting the season after. After the transfer to Juventus, Zambrotta continued his upward momentum. He made 32 league appearances with one goal in the first season he played for Juventus. On 14th May 2000, the last match day of the season, Juventus missed out on the Scudetto as they were defeated 1-0 away at Perugia in the heavy rain while Lazio got the 3 points at home by beating Reggina 3-0 and overcame Juventus with 1 point. Zambrotta was brought on in the second half in that game and was given a red card by the referee Pierluigi Collina later.
In his 2nd season for Juventus, 2000-01, Zambrotta made 29 league appearances and scored 3 goals. But Juventus finished once again on the 2nd place. Zambrotta won his first scudetto in the season 2001-02, while he made 32 league appearances and scored 1 goal throughout the season.
After Zambrotta suffered an injury in the game against South Korea during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he missed the beginning of the season 2002-03. During his absentation, the new signing of Juventus Mauro Camoranesi took his place on the right wing and was in superb form. This prompted the coach Marcello Lippi to switch Zambrotta to the left-back when he returned to action. Zambrotta was adapted to his new position very quickly and performed particularly well. He remained a regular first team player as Juventus won the 2nd consecutive scudetto and reached the UEFA Champions League final, in which they were defeated by Milan in the penalty shoot-out after a 0-0 draw.
Zambrotta has won three scudetti with Juventus as of 2005, making a total of 185 league appearances and scoring 7 goals in 6 seasons. In 2005-06, following the injury of Zebina and the arrival of Chiellini, Zambrotta is again switched to the right-back by the coach Fabio Capello. In 2005, Zambrotta extended his deal with Juventus again which will keep him in the black-and-white jersey until 2010.
Italy National Team
Under-21 Soon after Zambrotta was brought to the Serie A, he got the attention of the national side. He was selected to play for the Italy Under-21 national team for the first time on 25 March 1998 against Malta. In his second game for the U21 against Wales on 22 April 1998, he scored the 2nd goal of Italy at the 43rd minute and helped Italy to win the game by 2-1. In 1998, he played in all six games of the Italy U21 while they won 5 of them and drew the last one against Spain.
UEFA Euro 2000
In 1999-00, Zambrotta went on to play for the U21 for 4 more times and gained some more experience with the senior squad by getting 6 more caps. At the end of the 1999-00 season, Zambrotta appeared on the list of Zoff for the Euro 2000 in June. Zambrotta played in a number 17 jersey in his first major tournament with the Azzurri. In the group stage, Italy won all 3 games against Turkey, co-hosts Belgium, Sweden by 2-1, 2-0, 2-1 respectively while Zambrotta played the entire first 2 games. Zambrotta was back on the starting line-up in the quarter final game against Romania and helped Italy to go through by a 2-0 victory.
In the semi-final, Italy were facing the other co-hosts the Netherlands. After some tough encounters between Zambrotta and Boudewijn Zenden, they both picked up a yellow card very early in the game at the 15th and 28th minute respectively. Just 34 minutes into the first half, Zambrotta received a second booking for a foul on Zenden again and was sent off by the referee Markus Merk. With 10 players left on the field, Italy managed to bring the game into a penalty shoot-out with their magnificent defence. With Francesco Toldo saving a total of 4 penalties, including two in the regular time, Italy won the shoot-out by 3-1 and were in the final.
Zambrotta was suspended in the final against France due to his red card in the last round. Italy lost the game 1-2 after a golden goal by David Trézéguet.
2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan
After the appointment of the new coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, by the FIGC for the national team, Zambrotta remained a regular first team player in the squad. Before the World Cup (as of 27 May 2002) Zambrotta had earned 23 caps already. He played the entire 90 minutes for all the 3 games in the group stage and Italy were qualified as the runners up of the group. In the round of 16, Italy were drawn against the Group D winners, South Korea. At the 72nd minute, Zambrotta suffered a serious thigh injury after a very harsh tackle by the Korean defender. He was brought off the field and Italy lost the game in the extra time after a 1-1 draw.
UEFA Euro 2004
In 2003, after the retirement of Paolo Maldini from the national team and a successful switch to the left-back with Juventus, Zambrotta became the first choice for this position in the national team. On 30 May 2004, Zambrotta scored his first ever international goal in the game against Tunisia. A Bernardo Corradi header was flapped out for Zambrotta's fierce volley into the roof of the net at the 89th minute while Italy won the game by 4-0. In Euro 2004, although the performance of Italy was largely disappointing and were eliminated at the group stage, Zambrotta was one of the few Italian players who got praises for their performances.
Present
After two consecutive disappointing major tournaments, Trapattoni resigned as the coach of the Azzurri. The new coach for Italy is Marcello Lippi, who just resigned as the Juventus coach by that time. At the end of 2005, as Lippi brought on many new faces for the squad, he once again switched Zambrotta's position - to the right-back this time.
Zambrotta is currently one of the core players for Italy. His ability to play on any positions on both flanks contributes great flexibility to Italy. He will be a key figure of Azzurri in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. As of 16 Nov 2005, Zambrotta has earned 52 caps with 1 international goal.