Diego really wants to win tonight. The immensely talented Zola scored a couple of goals to help Napoli win the 1990 Serie A title. "He was the player that got close to what Diego used to do. Gianfranco Zola, légende du football italien, a parlé de la grande rencontre entre Naples et le Barça de ce mardi et a souligné la soirée spéciale que vivra Leo Messi dans le temple de Diego Armando Maradona. “He was my idol,” Zola told our own James Richardson recently. One Mailboxer wants your help in understanding why Diego Maradona was better than Thierry Henry... Liverpool will probably win it. Diego Maradona was a … Gianfranco Zola has backed Lionel Messi to rise to the occasion of playing at Diego Maradona's old stomping ground when Barcelona take on Napoli at Stadio San Paolo. “I learned a lot from him. He joined Gary Lineker and Jermaine Jenas to reflect on the moments and people that shaped his career. L'actuel entraineur d'Al-Arabi (Qatar) raconte son histoire et évoque son futur de technicien. He chastised the pontiff in his autobiography for living in … It was Ronaldo, the Brazilian. Born a Catholic, Diego Maradona said that meeting Pope John Paul II was a “disappointment”. VIDÉO SUIVANTE. “One day when we played against Pisa…he made me play in the No.10 jersey and picked the No.9 for himself. He sits next to me, taps me on the leg and does a pumped up grimace that says “I am up for this.” Gianfranco Zola is over the way. - … Maradona arrives last. Gianfranco Zola a encouragé Lionel Messi à se mettre en évidence sur l'ancien terrain de jeu de Diego Maradona lorsque Barcelone affrontera Napoli au Stadio San Paolo. And the very opposite can also be true, great players can be shocking managers! Gianfranco Zola: The little genius who dropped jaws and opened minds. He didn’t behave at all like a football star.” The Greatest of All Time? He will always be the greatest ever. I wasn't supposed to play that game because I pulled my groin very badly, I managed to recover and then scored a goal that was very important.". The midfield was a dream.". “He was the best player in the world and I learned so much just from watching him and training with him.”, ‘He paid really close attention to the things I did during training sessions,’ wrote Maradona, ‘and some of it stayed with him.’ That work helped Zola significantly in some early games for Napoli when he stood in for Maradona which, for a wet-behind-the-ears 23-year-old, just signed from the relative footballing backwaters, came with obvious and significant pressure. Gianfranco Zola managed West Ham United for 73 Premier League games during a turbulent time for the club. A fantastic team-mate, always creating a good atmosphere.". Home F365 Features When Gianfranco Zola met Diego Maradona…, Date published: Thursday 10th October 2019 3:26. The diminutive forward, dubbed 'Magic Box' for his quick feet and close control, played for Napoli and Parma before joining the Blues in 1996. "The other one, without doubt, was against Stuttgart when we won the Cup Winners' Cup with Chelsea. I don’t think anyone like Diego will ever be born again. Maradona once told the Pope to sell his gold ceiling. En juin 2005, à l'occasion du jubilé de Ciro Ferrara, Diego Maradona faisait son retour à Naples après quatorze ans d'absence. "Brazil 2-3 Italy in the 1982 World Cup. This piece first appeared on The Totally Football Show.com, home of Golazzo, a … Le légendaire meneur de jeu de Chelsea, Gianfranco Zola, aujourd'hui entraîneur d'Al Arabi, donne son point de vue sur l'éternel débat Maradona-Messi. "When you are young, and playing and training with a player like that, you get so many insights and things that can improve the game. "Scoring the winner against England was such a big satisfaction for me (in a 1-0 win at Wembley in World Cup qualifying) - especially the day after when I went to the training ground and saw Dennis Wise's face!". "They found him still asleep on the road. Join us down a Diego-themed rabbit hole... Peter Shilton on Diego Maradona should not have appeared in print the day after a legend's death. Diego Maradona's kiss of the divine will not diminish over time. “He was always fantastic to me and I will never forget the help he gave me,” Zola told the Daily Mirror in 1997. Yet it is Liverpool's to lose. Former Chelsea and Italy star Gianfranco Zola is the latest Premier League legend to reveal all to Match of the Day's Top 10 podcast. Klopp had the pleasure of meeting Maradona once and has described what it was like to meet the superstar. I liked him, not only as a player, but also a man. "Playing for your own country, I've always thought that was the best thing that could happen to you. "It's very easy to answer that question. He’d finish and go away to his house – no-one could get near him.”, “I knew I was in the presence of one of the best talents of all-time and it was a blessing for me,” Zola told talkSPORT a couple of years ago. Gianfranco Zola débute sa carrière en série A en 1989 avec le club de Naples, où il a la dure tâche de remplacer Maradona au sein de l’effectif napolitain. Obviously, it's Diego Maradona. Soon we’re on the team bus. “The person I looked up to. Diego Maradona arrived at Napoli in a blizzard of hype and confusion, so superbly documented in ‘Diego’, Asif Kapadia’s film about the great man. Then I met Maradona. Last updated on 15 July 202015 July 2020.From the section Premier League. He was very humble and down to earth. You can subscribe here, and they will all be delivered straight to your favoured device. I always took big pride at being part of the Italian squad. Luciano Moggi – the Ernst Stavro Blofeld of Italian football in the 1980s and 90s, always seeming to lurk in the background, the hand behind everything – had spotted this small kid with big hair playing for Torres in Sardinia and brought him over, at the same time as Massimo Mauro, who arrived from Juventus. Club president Corrado Ferlaino threatened to call the whole thing off if the assembled media didn’t calm down a little bit. But despite the disparity in personas, the two had a master-apprentice relationship in those early days at Napoli. “I can’t believe he took drugs. His friendship with Diego Maradona also played a significant role in shaping his career. "Mark Hughes came on and was unbelievable for us, after a few minutes we scored and there was electricity on the pitch, you could feel it was a special game. Think Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger and Jurgen Klopp. “The things he did! That was one of the reasons we were successful, because we had a very good atmosphere between each other.". The two arrivals in many ways reflected their respective personalities, Maradona the extrovert (in public at least), living high and thriving on being the symbol of a team and city; Zola the introvert, the modest and unassuming type who once approached a group of men who were planning to kidnap him and asked if they wanted an autograph. Best Football Players - Then and Now - Ronaldo, Maradona, Messi, Pelé,...etc - Duration: 10:07. Zola was shocked – shocked! Off the pitch, I always liked his simplicity. We said he must've fallen asleep, he wasn't in his house… this guy, he went to a party the night before and on the way back he just dropped on the side of the road. Soon, the team officials started considering him as the perfect substitute of the legendary Argentinean footballer Diego Maradona. "I arrived in England in November 1996 and didn't know there was a tradition to go out for Christmas lunch. "I used to watch every single movement, everything Diego used to do in training. “He had so many problems because he couldn’t have a normal life. – to hear that drug-taking was going on. Zola was a young man in a new city and in need of a mentor to guide his development. It was unbelievable. “The list is qualified, not long,” he said in 1997, just after joining Chelsea, when asked which players he looked up to. I was very blessed, had very good coaches, but Sacchi was in those years a step ahead of everyone. "When we played against Liverpool we were getting better as a team. You were always one step behind. Lord. He speaks Spanish and acts as translator. "I cannot tell you how many times in training we had to stop and clap him. ‘He was my substitute, usually, and on that Sunday we played together…We never imagined, neither one of us, nor anyone else, that it would be one of the last opportunities we would have to do so. He played his debut match for Napoli in 1989. ... Gianfranco Zola Teaches Jimmy Bullard How To Take PERFECT Free-Kicks! "I'm walking next to a young Gianfranco Zola, Alemão, Careca and at the top of the pack was Maradona, who was absolutely amazing. From the section Premier League The story goes, as told on the upcoming Golazzo episode about Zola, that Ferlaino took one look at the skinny, 5ft 6 Sardinian signed from Serie C and told Moggi that he could present him to the media, while he would introduce the taller and more established Mauro. Try not to do anything stupid.’ I stayed still, like a doll, saying nothing…and in the end, I looked stupid.”, Zola signed for Napoli at the start of their second Scudetto season, but things were already starting to go slightly awry for Maradona. I just turned round and there were 60,000 people going mad.”. The preparation - we used to train in a certain way but when we went to him he had had this different approach, looking after every single detail on the pitch. "Arrigo Sacchi. “I was very lucky to be his team-mate and get to play with him as well as watch him train every day,” he told FourFourTwo in 2007. In the end, we came from 2-0 down to beat Liverpool 4-2.". Some of the things that used to come out from him were incredible. "My first one when I was very young, growing up in my hometown. Angry that Ferlaino had reneged on an apparent promise to let him leave the club for Marseille earlier that year, Maradona took his own sweet time returning to the club. His influence has been terrific.”. He was and will always be unique. The difference that there was between Diego and the others, was similar to Ronaldo and the others. ‘After the Copa America I went fishing in Esquina, in Corrientes,’ Maradona wrote. When I grew up he was my first hero. Gianfranco Zola né le 5 juillet 1966 à Oliena, en Sardaigne, est un footballeur international italien devenu entraîneur. Gianfranco Zola spent seven seasons as a player at Chelsea after joining in 1996 July 15, 2020 keyrincare Memories Comments Off on MOTD Top 10 podcast: Gianfranco Zola on Diego Maradona… Mourners started filing past the coffin of Diego Maradona in Buenos Aires as Argentina began three days of national mourning on Thursday following the death of the former national football team captain. "One day we were playing 11 v 11 on the pitch. It was a flash of lightning. All Napoli players are upset as a friend is in deep trouble.”. "It is difficult to compare to nowadays, in those years it was much harder to score goals.". For me it was the most beautiful thing I could ever imagine; Maradona letting me play in the No.10. Gianfranco Zola has hailed the impact Diego Maradona had on his career when the two played together at Napoli. "Although I played him only once in a friendly, the impression he gave me from watching him in that game was unbelievable. "The first goal in Serie A. We only really ever saw him at training. I got picked for the drug test.’, Maradona claimed he was clean. Deep to the tune of a 15-month ban, much to the dismay of Zola. Here are just a few of the highlights that Maradona has left us with. The goalkeeper threw the ball to him halfway in the middle of the pitch, he controlled it with his chest, lobbed the marker and without letting the ball bounce hit this volley and lobbed the keeper on the other side. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian … "Against Liverpool in the FA Cup fourth round - I didn't know how important the FA Cup was. Imagine my confidence, but especially my shock!”, That season they won the title again, but the following year is when things really started to go south for Maradona. "A lot of specific training for the defence, the midfield, the strikers, I thought he was on a different level.". “A sentence as rigid as this?” he lamented. “He was Maradona, yet with the team he seemed just like an ordinary lad like the rest of us. FF y était. "They used to play football in a way that nobody could. Well, sort of: he claimed he was clean at that particular time, while admitting to a more general cocaine habit, and hinted that dark forces were at work when he tested positive. “Off the pitch, I always liked his simplicity,” said Gianfranco Zola, who played alongside Maradona at Napoli. It was very important, gave me such a boost, also with the supporters. Gianfranco Zola est une des légendes du football italien des années 90, après avoir fréquenté Diego Maradona à Naples, il a rejoint Chelsea en 1996. Gianfranco Zola OMRI OBE is an Italian football manager and former footballer who played predominantly as a forward. MOTD Top 10 podcast: Gianfranco Zola on Diego Maradona, Ronaldo and life at Chelsea Last updated on 15 July 2020 15 July 2020 . ‘We beat them 1-0, with a goal by Zolita, Gianfranco Zola,’ wrote Maradona. ”It is as if they have disqualified soccer for 15 months.” Maradona left Napoli to sign for Sevilla when the suspension ended, while Zola stayed and inherited the No.10 jersey for another couple of seasons, until financial problems at the club meant he was sold to Parma in 1993. Deep trouble indeed. When Gianfranco Zola met Diego Maradona… Date published: Thursday 10th October 2019 3:26. Indeed, Maradona arrived for the start of the season late and in…not the greatest shape. We went to this disco, I was a little bit late as usual, the first thing I stepped in and saw Frode Grodas on top of a table half undressed, completely drunk and singing a Norwegian song!