Gianluca Zambrotta
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by Jim Riggio
04 August 2006
Los Angeles, California
Text and image courtesy of and copyrighted © by James Riggio. All rights reserved.
Gianluca Zambrotta
Mr. Riggio, whom I interviewed for my column with AC Cugini Scuola Calcio, met Gianluca at Loyola Marymount. FC Barcelona was training for their friendly game with Chivas Guadalajara. Jim conducted the interview in Italian, and was kind enough to translate it. Gianluca had recently been transferred from Juventus, where he spent the last seven years, to Barcelona. Zambrotta is a native of Como, Italy, and has represented the Azzurri on 57 occasions. He also had 13 international appearances for the Under 21 national team. He has competed at the Euro 2000, Sydney Olympics of 2000, World Cup 2002, Euro 2004, and World Cup 2006.
Zambrotta Returns
by Jim Riggio
Gianluca Zambrotta’s return to the soccer field was a rather bizarre one for the defender who was one of the stars of Italy’s winning World Cup side.
Zambrotta was far from Berlin, the last place he had touched a ball. He was not in Italy or any other place in Europe. Instead, Zambrotta found himself more than half the world away in Los Angeles practicing with defending European club champions Barcelona, which recently paid 14 million euros for his transfer.
Zambrotta spent seven seasons with Juventus, which was recently relegated to Serie B due a match-fixing scandal.
“Today is an important day because it is the first day I’ve played with a team outside Italy,’’ Zambrotta said. “I feel bad for leaving the way I had to go from Juventus, but this will be a new experience with a great team.”
Zambrotta said that although he will not be playing on a regular basis in Italy this year, he believes he will find his way back home.
“Maybe we’ll return to play against some Italian team. You never know,’’ Zambrotta said about playing in the UEFA Champions League.
With a few weeks to relish the moment of having won the World Cup, Zambrotta said it was difficult to describe.
“It was unbelievable,’’ he said. “The tension was there, but we were concentrated to move forward and luckily we won the World Cup.”
Having made the all-tournament team, Zambrotta, who played on the right side of the defense, was one of 10 Italian players to score a goal in the World Cup.
He scored after just six minutes in Italy’s 3-0 quarterfinal victory over the Ukraine.
“That was a great game,’’ Zambrotta said. “I’ll always remember it on a personal level.”
Zambrotta, who has the ability of playing on either the right or left side of the defense, said he has not spoken yet with Barcelona Coach Frank Rijkaard on what his role will be with the club that raised the Champions League trophy last year.
At just 29, if he remains healthy, Zambrotta might be able to play in his third World Cup for Italy in 2010.
His Biography Page from Wikipedia
His Goal Against Ukraine at WC 2006
Return to World Football Home Page
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