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Saturday 31 August 2013

Legends of Turin's finest ! (Series 5 Gianluca Zambrotta)

Gianluca Zambrotta was regarded as one of the best full backs of his time and it is hard to disagree. Zambrotta began his Serie A career at Bari where he instantly impressed being the first Bari player to play for the national side in 50 years so it came as no surprise when Juve came in for the defender and payed €15,493,707 in 1999 to get him in a black and white top. Zambrotta played 294 times for Juventus and was successful in doing so winning 2 Serie A's, 2 Supercoppa Italiana's and 1 UEFA Intertoto Cup. In 2006 Zambrotta's Juventus career came to an end as unlike Del Piero and Buffon, Zambrotta decided to leave Serie B bound Juventus after the Calciopoli scandal. Many of Europe's finest came in for the full back however he decide to end his Bianconeri career with a €14 million pound move to Barcelona.

Zambrotta did not only do well in his club career but also in his international career. As said before Zambrotta was the first Bari player to play for the national side in 50 years but it wasn't really till 2003 when Paolo Maldini retired from international football. Zambrotta's only success for Italy was in 2006 when Italy won the World Cup. Zambrotta was doubt going into the tournament with a thigh injury but he only missed the first game and when he returned he made a huge impact even scoring a goal against Ukraine. Unfortunately Zambrotta was two off of the 100 appearance mark for Italy but nevertheless the 98 appearances he made were all great.

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