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Fabio Cannavaro
Best Known As:
Sports Figure
Gist:
Fabio Cannavaro, Cavaliere Ufficiale OMRI (born 13 September, 1973 in Naples, Italy) is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who plays for Serie A club Juventus. [ He won the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 2006, making him the first and so far only defender to win the award, as well as the oldest recipient.]
Career Facts:
Before moving to Real Madrid in Spain, Cannavaro played most of his club career in the Italian Serie A league. The clubs he played for includes his hometown side Napoli, Parma, with whom he achieved significant domestic cup and European success, Juventus, where he won two later revoked scudetto titles, and Internazionale.
Cannavaro initially served as the club's ball boy, and his progress as a player was such that he became a member of the first team alongside some of his childhood idols. Cannavaro's debut in Serie A came on 7 March 1993 in Turin for a game against Juventus. The post-Maradona Napoli were in desperate need of funds and were soon forced to sell Cannavaro to Parma, where Cannavaro won the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia, and was named the Serie A Defender of the Year.
In the summer of 2001, Cannavaro joined Internazionale for a fee reported ?23 million. During his spell with the club he reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League 2002-03 and also finished runners up in Serie A. His second season was not as productive and he missed a large chunk of it through injury.
After a two-year stint, he signed for Juventus on summer transfer window deadline day. The deal also involved the exchange of Fabian Carini who left for Inter. By coming to Turin, he re-joined his ex-Parma teammates Lilian Thuram and Gianluigi Buffon, and together the threesome formed one of the most feared defences in the Serie A. They went on won two consecutive Scudetti in 2005 and 2006, though both were later revoked due to the Calciopoli scandal. Juventus captain Cannavaro won l'Oscar del Calcio: Migliore difensore, the Football Oscar, for his exceptional debut season at the Turin giants.
After the 2006 World Cup, the Calciopoli trial verdicts relegated Juventus to Serie B and stripped the club of its 2004-05 and 2005-06 Scudetti. Since Juventus was ineligible to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, Cannavaro decided to leave. "Even if I know this may be hard to believe, I would have stayed at Juventus had they remained in Serie A ? even with a 30-point deduction.". He followed coach Fabio Capello to Real Madrid and inherited the number 5 shirt of the legendary Zinedine Zidane. Real Madrid paid ?7million for the player. Cannavaro spent three seasons at Madrid, winning the La Liga title in 2006-07 and 2007-08, and was named the 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year during his time there. On 19 May 2009, it was confirmed that Cannavaro would return to Juventus for the 2009-10 season on the expiration of his contact with Real Madrid
The night before the 1999 UEFA Cup Final, a video tape was released which showed Cannavaro being injected with a substance. The substance was found to be neoton, which is a drug and a creatine phosphate used in cardiac surgery, and is not on the banned substance list. No action was ever taken.
[ YouTube: video of Cannavaro receiving IV]
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