Fabio Cannavaro: The street urchin who became a World Cup 'legend'

May 14, 2014

"You have won the tournament, which starts to become a legend -. For people all over the world, you're different"
Fabio Cannavaro, this has been hard earned legendary status.
At only 5 feet 9 inches tall, was created to be the world's greatest attractions. It certainly did not expect to be named the best player in the world.
"All my life, I have worked very hard to be a football player, because I am very proud," World Cup in Italy in 2006 winning captain of the Human says CNN hero series.
"- With a lot of skills, qualities that I have with a lot of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi do not like."
Taking over the captaincy in 2002 by Paolo Maldini in his illustrious predecessor, it has become the embodiment of defensive greatness of a man should not upstage.
How Neapolitan - footballing strongholds north of art and is considered by many as an outsider - South Cannavaro was an unlikely hero to unite the country.
Its positioning, athleticism and the development of an impressive jump - but the Foundation Fuorigrotta, young Cannavaro learned that he needed to play smart and hard to Naples, where, in a working class neighborhood on the western edge of the neighborhood streets - to overcome opponents.
"Everywhere in the car." Spend their days playing football in the street with a smiling, cunning street urchin, was the quintessential Scugnizzo
40-year-old recalls, "My parents day 'Ah, here it is very important for your future, it is better to go to school," he said. "" But inside me, I said: 'I think the best way to follow the football.' "
Eight years ago in Berlin, the trophy of the World Cup Bolt, holding high his firm belief has paid off.

Opponent's final night of the record set in 1998 by France, equaling - Cannavaro blue defense marshaled by only two goals throughout the tournament was tied 1-1 at the end of the discovery, and 90 through an encounter incomplete tenaciously fought minutes.
Berlin Wall - Performance impenetrable him his nickname of "Wall of Gold" earned.
His then-trademark buzz cut and a smile from ear to ear on the boy, Cannavaro rarely hoping his shoulders seemed a man nation Sporting luck.


His calm demeanor (when asked what was the secret of his strong performance, he replied: "getting plenty of sleep and have sex, eat well") generally Neapolitan and set him apart from his French counterpart Zinedine Zidane volatility - that would, with the door infamous After lashing out at the exit of excess.
Cannavaro is the captain and his crew were too quiet: Because of those around him, intelligence and professionalism, "very easily," he says, was.
With most - at the regular time of play as they struggled through, it was easy to do, but the words tiebreaker professionalism.
Italy (to be decided by penalties in the final of the tournament in the other, losing only to Brazil in 1994) was not lost on penalties, but this time the departure of the previous four World Cups intensified and is home to three of the five potential place strong .
"A place where the celebration of the old Gladiators" - will change now for the realization to sink in that everything is back in the stadium Circus Maximus in Rome took a coach trip of four hours.
And much more nightlife - undoubtedly the view of the rest of the arena 150,000 Italians ecstatic.
"For us, it was something amazing - more than 2 million people in the streets," like a son of the previous World Cup triumph in 1982 that he watched television in Italy Cannavaro, remember.
"We had a little 'understanding - We are the World Champs realized' Wow '.
"Now we are just normal players."
Trophies and tribulations
After five days of celebration, Juventus, Cannavaro team at the moment, the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal in Serie A, its role is to boot from the Italian top flight, and he was soon on his way out.
"My team has been incredible, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet, Lilian Thuram, Gianluigi Buffon had to remember - .. We had nine players for the team (Game) in the final of the World Cup"
But Calciopoli destroy everything. "
"In the end ... We have decided to move., Some players have decided to stay there, but I'm Fabio Capello, the coach went to Real Madrid."
Cannavaro fourth - this, then it is not pleasant to another, culminating in the World Cup, it will be the beginning of a turbulent period.
32, the point of the football club has enjoyed his performance record, but little to show for it. With Juventus had won the previous two seasons, has been stripped of all time, and remains a barren period in the fork between Napoli and Inter Milan are coming, the victories of the Italian Cup and the UEFA Cup with Parma were. 

 
Real with the No. 5 shirt previously worn by Zidane pain, back-to-back Liga titles in his first two years, and won.
Cannavaro has begun to take very different prizes. Beating the likes of Zidane and Ronaldinho - usually creative directors or steal the lime light, then individual awards received by Europe's best strikers - became the third defendant went on to win the Ballon d'Or.
He says his talent was overwhelming new award:
"I have every week, some guys call me the note: 'Ah, you must take the trophy, you have to come to Madrid, Paris needs to come from ...'"
The same year, the FIFA player of the year took home the title, was a complete fresh booty.
I won both the "when, all, 'OK, he's the best!" So I was very happy for the trophy, "he laughs.
But it will be golden. Juventus fans in Turin in an unhappy return has been accepted as one of them before the departure of a player refuses to forgive the truth, follows a third season. A failed drug test in 2009 - was later cleared of all charges, which - added tension, and after two seasons with no titles were out of his way.
Even the captain, he is 127 caps (from his longtime friend and fellow World Cup a record surpassed by Gianluigi Buffon), with Maldini August 2009 approved by Italy's most capped player. But - 35 years - you're starting to slow down and knee injuries has become common.
Italy lost in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 with an ankle injury margin remained on the SAT, failed to win a match after being in a team, the defending champions took an early flight home, where the disastrous Cup 2010 World reappeared for the footballing nation Skip consists Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand. He retired from international football in the back.
He is an international star, a World Cup marked the end of his career after playing at the highest level to the next.
Naples and Dreams Dubai
If it was not for the unmistakable large - Dubai skyscrapers of glass and yachts Petro-dollars sitting in the stadium al-Rashad, Cannavaro lifting the trophy in 2006 skinhead Defender can now make him unrecognizable, which has a jet blacks hair and smile.
Sumptuous surroundings was not his first choice.
He is now the assistant coach of the UAE Football League side Al book, before entering, is back where he made his debut almost two decades ago, the Naples, tried to plan a move, and he could be reunited with his younger brother, Paul , where also a defendant.
It was the happiest where he was - by his club's first team regulars childhood graduated from a ball boy.
"I started playing in 1993 with my team, I was a fan of Naples, because, I was surprised. Gotta be close to the players, to me, like a second skin to me all my life and grew up with the shirt Naples and it was amazing, I love it I was doing here? '
The famous story of the greatest hero of a young Cannavaro Napoli, Diego Maradona as the opposite of a boy training, and remember to provide a crunching tackle. Apparently the coach was less than impressed, but invited him to urge the Argentine legend.
Maldini, Franco Baresi, and the rest - even the luminaries of his country of origin as the inspiration for a career Cannavaro, Napoli, who led Argentina to glory at the World Cup in 1986, before entering Maradona , ranks.
"Maradona, I think, is a football player, but he's different., Was incredible," said Cannavaro.
Homecoming fell flat, if desired, then a knee injury forced his retirement to join the coaching staff next year, the 2010 World Cup as a player on a free transfer after moving to al-Book ", try something different, "the time.
Whose career discipline, hard work and common sense tactics for a player is defined by, not surprisingly simple move into coaching, and his appointment has coincided with an upturn in the fortunes of the dress Dubai. He learned to speak English.
"I came here, it was very, very bad team., Now with my President, after three years, we have changed the team," the club of the United Arab Emirates Arabian Gulf League, Super Cup and was seen to reflect on the 2014 season, League Cup honors. "We are very proud of what you do."
The book is his contract ends in June and the future is still undecided - once he had recently gained his UEFA coaching badges and has declared his ambition to return to Italy, though. 

"Now I'm not a coach, so I want to be a coach," he says. "I go around the world and share my experience with the players, seems to be ready."
The team Cannavaro has won some of the faces, in their own right, "the legend" by the hungry young players as possible - in 2006 the exterior, as well as - as we prepare to head for the national team for the World Cup in Brazil.
But Italy - World Cup Trophy, with the second best winning the race - can not be ignored that seeks a fifth crown.
"We have a good team, a good coach and - of course - we are the Italian national team, we can try to win the World Cup," Cannavaro has warned.
"Never in the history of South America to a European team has won the World Cup., And talk of Dubai inshallah, we can win, because it's not easy." ...