Fabio Cannavaro

Fabio Cannavaro, Cavaliere OMRI (born September 13, 1973, Naples, Italy) is a professional Italian footballer, currently playing for Real Madrid. He is captain of the Italian national team, with which he won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, part of the FIFPro World XI 2006 team, and
also the current European Footballer of the Year and FIFA World Player
of the Year.

Technical, mental and physical abilityAs a defender, Fabio Cannavaro is famous for his anticipation,
concentration and reading of the game, abilities which allow him to make well-timed interceptions and precise slide-tackles. These characteristics have contributed with other factors, including his
fitness and stamina, to the widespread recognition of him being one of the best outright defenders ever,allowing him to join a long line of world-class Italian defenders. Cannavaro, although not particularly tall, has a noteworthy leaping ability that allows him to compete seemingly unhindered in the air, both when defending and attacking Club careerBorn in Naples, Cannavaro has played for his hometown club S.S.C. Napoli (1992-95), Parma F.C. (1995-2002), F.C. Internazionale Milano
(2002-04) and Juventus FC (2004-2006) during his career in Serie A, before moving to Real Madrid in the Spanish Primera Divisiòn. Cannavaro's talent was quickly spotted by scouts from local club
Napoli, who were enjoying the most successful period of their history. The team which included Diego Maradona and Ciro Ferrara had just won the Scudetto. Cannavaro started out as a ball boy at the Stadio San Paolo and his progress was such that he became a member of the first
team alongside some of his childhood idols.

Cannavaro's Serie A debut came on 7 March 1993, at Turin’s Stadio Delle
Alpi against Juventus. Unfortunately, post-Maradona Napoli were in
desperate need of funds and were soon forced to sell Cannavaro to Parma
F.C.. At Parma, Cannavaro initially began to win plaudits from a wider
audience and establish himself as an extremely talented defender.
Together with his defensive partner Lilian Thuram and goalkeeper
Gianluigi Buffon, Gialloblù became renowned as the team with one of the
best defences in Serie A. Under the guidance of coach Carlo Ancelotti,
they helped the club to its best ever league finish in 1997, finishing
second, a point behind the champions Juventus. In 1998-99, Parma won
the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia amongst other trophies. Fabio's
individual prowess was recognised in the form of the Albo d'Oro (or
Oscar del Calcio: Migliore difensore): literally the oscar for best
defender in Italy award. Cannavaro was named runner-up 3 years in a row
(2000, 2001, 2002) as the Migliore difensore. Note that Fabio would
later win this award in 2005.

In the summer of 2002, Cannavaro joined Internazionale for a fee of €32 million. After a two year stint at the Nerazzurri, he signed for Juventus. Here he re-joined his ex-Parma partners Lilian Thuram and Gigi Buffon, to reform one of the most successful defensive line-ups in Serie A, and enabling Cannavaro to win his first scudetto with Juventus in 2005 and a second the following season in 2006. 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 FC to Serie B and stripped the club of its 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 Scudetti. Cannavaro, mindful of his age and the imminent prospect of two years of the club not being able to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, decided to leave La Vecchia Signora. Cannavaro
said that "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 accompanied one of his team mates, Emerson and in doing so re-joined his former Juve coach Fabio Capello at the Estadio
Santiago Bernabéu, the home of Real Madrid. Although no fee was confirmed by either club, press speculation has often set the combined transfer's worth at roughly 20 million euros.
On July 25, Fabio Cannavaro officially became a Real Madrid player, with a three year contract and the number 5 jersey, which previously belonged to Manuel Sanchís and Zinedine Zidane. He scored his first goal for the club on August 18, 2006 in a friendly match against Real Betis. On his 33rd birthday, Real Madrid played against Olympique

On December 20, 2006, shortly after being awarded the Fifa World Player of the Year award, Cannavaro was badly at fault for the opening goal and produced a poor performance as Real Madrid suffered an embarrassing 3-0 home defeat to Recreativo Huelva. International careerFabio Cannavaro's first taste of international success came over a Decade ago under coach Cesare Maldini with Italy's U-21 side, winning consecutive European Under-21 Football Championship titles in 1992-1994 and 1994-1996. In 1996, he participated in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

In the national team, Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta have combined very effectively to form the basis of the Italian central defence. He has played for his country in the 1998, 2002, and 2006 World Cups, as well as Euro 2000 and Euro 2004. Cannavaro made his international debut in
January 1997 against Northern Ireland and has since earned 105 caps. Only Paolo Maldini (126 caps) and Dino Zoff (112 caps) have appeared in more games for Italy.

Cannavaro's first international tournament came at 1998 FIFA World Cup under his mentor Paolo Maldini, and the squad was coached by Maldini's father Cesare. Italy went out in the quarter-finals to hosts and eventual champions France; Cannavaro suffered a scar on his forehead from an elbow by Stephane Guivarc'h during the match. The match was decided by a penalty shoot-out after the teams were tied 0-0. In Euro 2000, it was Les Bleus who once again shattered Italy's dreams.
Cannavaro had a strong tournament and the Azzurri reached the final, where they led the then world champions 1-0 going into injury time.

Near the end of regular time, Sylvain Wiltord found the equalizer, and an extra-time golden goal from David Trézéguet gave France the title. At the 2002 FIFA World Cup he was credited with holding the defence together, almost single-handedly after Alessandro Nesta was injured against Croatia. Italy however went out amidst a refereeing controversy losing to co-hosts South Korea in the second round, again to a golden goal.

Cannavaro had a hard act to follow when he took over as captain from Maldini after the 2002 World Cup, but he quickly won the team over with his constant smile, laid-back Neapolitan approach and inspiring performances. After Maldini's international retirement he first captained Italy in a match at Napoli and received a standing ovation on the pitch where he sported the local side's colours between 1991 and 1995.

Euro 2004 which was hosted by Portugal turned out to be a disappointment. Cannavaro picked up yellow cards during the two draws with Denmark (0-0) and Sweden (1-1), forcing him to sit out the final group game. Italy defeated Bulgaria 2-1, but failed to advance on goal
difference. Cannavaro's only international goal was scored on May 30, 2004 against
Tunisia, Italy won 4-0. 2006 World CupCannavaro captained Italy throughout their 2006 World Cup campaign. Though forwards Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti, and Christian Vieri had received the most attention in past international tournaments, Cannavaro was considered one of the top Italian players in Germany.

His performance against Germany in the World Cup Semi-Finals 2006 was earmarked as one of the finest individual performance ever seen in football by many pundits, including Eamon Dunphy.
He earned a spot on the All-Star Team at the end of the competition - awarded by FIFA's Technical Study Group - alongside six other Italian teammates, Gianluigi Buffon, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Luca Toni, Francesco Totti and Gianluca Zambrotta. After victories in the 2006
World Cup, the Azzurri celebrated to the soundtrack of traditional Italian songs on Cannavaro's iPod.

He was runner up in the race for the Golden Ball, finishing runner-up to French captain Zinedine Zidane. Those who voted for Cannavaro felt that he had played immaculately throughout the tournament, while Zidane only shone in the knockout phase of the competition; it was a close
contest with Zidane polling 2012 points to Cannavaro's 1977. However, Zidane was arguably the most dominant player on his squad, compared to Cannavaro who faced competition from his teammates; notably Buffon who was named the tournament's best goalkeeper and outpolled Zidane and Cannavaro in Golden Ball Internet voting, and Pirlo who won the Bronze Ball.

His crowning moment was lifting the World Cup on July 9, 2006, the night of his 100th cap. Notably, Cannavaro never received a single yellow or red card throughout the 690 minutes he played in the
tournament. The Italian defence conceded only two goals throughout the entire tournament, an own-goal and a penalty. PersonalHe is regarded as a sex symbol in his native Italy and was recently
voted "sexiest player" of the 2006 World Cup.


Family

He is married to Daniela, whom he first met at the age of 16. They had a romantic courtship, as Fabio proclaimed his love for Daniela by writing her love notes on walls. They have two sons, Christian (b. July 17, 1999) and Andrea (b. October 20, 2004), and a daughter, Martina (b. December 22, 2001).

He idolizes Ciro Ferrara and Diego Maradona heroes of his native Naples. His first experience of the World Cup came at Italia '90, where the home team was playing Argentina in the semi-finals. He was a ball boy at the Stadio San Paolo along with his fellow Napoli youth team members, who witnessed his native club's star Diego Maradona help defeat Italy.

Cannavaro is revered by fans of Italian football because of his character, his determination and his humility. He is nearly always photographed with his famous engaging smile. Together with his fellow
Napoletano Ciro Ferrara, Fabio has helped establish a charity foundation, "FCF Fondazione Cannavaro Ferrara", specialising in the procurement of cancer research equipment and surgery for special cases of cancer for a hospital in their native Naples. He has many tattoos. On the inside of his upper right arm, is "Andrea" (one of his sons) and on the outside, a tattoo of a warrior. On his
right forearm, is a tattoo saying "Daniela" (his wife) and on his upper back, is a tattoo with Chinese characters (It's his daughter's name in chinese)while on the lower back, is a tattoo of "Christian" (his other son). Also, on his right leg, he has a tattoo of a sun. His younger brother, Paolo Cannavaro, is also a defender, and plays for Napoli. The two brothers played alongside each other at Parma from 2000 until 2002, when Fabio left for Inter. Cannavaro has expressed his desire to play for his native club Napoli after his stint at Real Madrid.

FIFA World Player of the YearOn 18th December 2006 Fabio Cannavaro won the FIFA World Player of the Year award. He was quoted as saying, 'It is not normal for a defender to be sitting between Zinedine Zidane (Three times winner) and Ronaldinho (Twice winner).' [1]. Fabio Cannavaro is the only defender in football history to be named the FIFA World Player of the Year and
he is also the oldest recipient of the coveted award

Interesting Facts

• Fabio and Daniela met when he was 16 and she was 15, but they were both engaged to somebody else. (It's quite common in the south of Italy to get engaged before you're 18)
• Fabio does not drink alcohol and is against any kind of drug.
• During his years in Parma F.C., Fabio went to every single school in
  town to talk to kids and tell them not to get involved with drugs in any way
• He collects action figures from the show Lupin the 3rd
• Fabio loves to cook and is good at it
• Fabio has said if he wasn't a soccer player he'd be a pizzabaker
• Pizza, mozzarella, and sweets are his favorite foods
• His favorite movie is Braveheart
• Fabio's favorite music is R&B, Rap, and Pop music.
• His favorite singer is Pino Daniele and Daniele's song "Napul'è'"
• Fabio shaves his legs and his chest, he actually shaves everything,
  although he's not a hairy person
• He enjoys the sea, sailing, and can also conduct a boat
• Fabio loves Armani perfume and has a bottle in every car
• He use to share a room with his sister Renata during his childhood but
  had to move to the living room once she was expecting a baby