Gianluca Zambrotta

Gianluca Zambrotta(born February 19, 1977 in Como) is an Italian football player. He is comfortable playing on either wing as a defender or midfielder. He currently plays for Juventus of Serie A in a jersey numbered 19.

Zambrotta started his career with his hometown team Como Calcio at the age of 17 in 1994. In his first season with Como in Serie B he played only one game. In 1995, Como were relegated to the Serie C1 and Zambrotta started to play more regularly for the first team. In the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons, he made 47 appearances and scored 6 goals for Como.

In 1997, Zambrotta's Serie A career have begun when his great potential was spotted by the A.S. Bari boss Eugenio Fascetti. Zambrotta was snapped up by Fascetti after Bari had won promotion to the Serie A. In his first year in the top flight, Zambrotta was playing on the left wing and scored 2 goals in 27 appearances. In the 1998-99 season, following the departure of Nicola Ventola, Zambrotta exploded on to the scene. In Week 1, he scored the only goal of the game against Venezia after just 9 minutes into the first half. Zambrotta continued to shine and was the key figure for Bari's surprise start to the campaign. In Week 7, he scored the opening goal at San Siro and helped Bari to win the game 3-2 against Inter. In February 1999, the Italian Under-21 International was rewarded by the coach of Italy, Dino Zoff, for his impressive displays. He earned his first cap in a friendly against Norway. He became the first player of Bari to play for the national side in 50 years. Throughout the 1998-99 season, he made 32 appearances and got on the score sheet for 4 times. Halfway through this season, he was brought to the most successful club in Italy, Juventus, by Carlo Ancelotti for €15.85M and would play in the black-and-white jersey starting the season after.

After the transfer to Juventus, Zambrotta continued his upward momentum. He made 32 league appearances with one goal in the first season he played for Juventus. In his 2nd season for Juventus, 2000-01, Zambrotta made 29 league appearances and scored 3 goals. But Juventus finished once again on the 2nd place. Zambrotta won his first scudetto in the season 2001-02, while he made 32 league appearances and scored 1 goal throughout the season.

After Zambrotta suffered an injury in the game against South Korea during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he missed the beginning of the season 2002-03. During his absentation, the new signing of Juventus Mauro Camoranesi took his place on the right wing and was in superb form. This prompted the coach Marcello Lippi to switch Zambrotta to the left-back when he returned to action. Zambrotta was adapted to his new position very quickly and performed particularly well. He remained a regular first team player as Juventus won the 2nd consecutive scudetto and reached the UEFA Champions League final, in which they were defeated by Milan in the penalty shoot-out after a 0-0 draw.

Zambrotta has won three scudetti with Juventus as of 2005, making a total of 185 league appearances and scoring 7 goals in 6 seasons. In 2005-06, following the injury of Zebina and the arrival of Chiellini, Zambrotta is again switched to the right-back by the coach Fabio Capello. In 2005, Zambrotta extended his deal with Juventus again which will keep him in the black-and-white jersey until 2010.

Soon after Zambrotta was brought to the Serie A, he got the attention of the national side. He was selected to play for the Italy Under-21 national team for the first time on 25 March 1998 against Malta. In his second game for the U21 against Wales on 22 April 1998, he scored the 2nd goal of Italy at the 43rd minute and helped Italy to win the game by 2-1. In 1998, he played in all six games of the Italy U21 while they won 5 of them and drew the last one against Spain.

After some impressive displays for the U21 and the amazing start of the season 1998-99, Zambrotta earned his first cap on 10 February 1999, 9 days before his 22nd birthday. Despite a 0-0 draw in this friendly against Norway, Zambrotta played well throughout the game.

In 1999-00, Zambrotta went on to play for the U21 for 4 more times and gained some more experience with the senior squad by getting 6 more caps. At the end of the 1999-00 season, Zambrotta appeared on the list of Zoff for the Euro 2000 in June. In the semi-final, Italy were facing the other co-hosts the Netherlands. After some tough encounters between Zambrotta and Boudewijn Zenden, they both picked up a yellow card very early in the game at the 15th and 28th minute respectively. Just 34 minutes into the first half, Zambrotta received a second booking for a foul on Zenden again and was sent off by the referee Markus Merk. With 10 players left on the field, Italy managed to bring the game into a penalty shoot-out with their magnificent defence. With Francesco Toldo saving a total of 4 penalties, including two in the regular time, Italy won the shoot-out by 3-1 and were in the final. Zambrotta was suspended in the final against France due to his red card in the last round. Italy lost the game 1-2 after a golden goal by David Tråzåguet.

After the appointment of the new coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, by the FIGC for the national team, Zambrotta remained a regular first team player in the squad. Before the World Cup (as of 27 May 2002) Zambrotta had earned 23 caps already. He played the entire 90 minutes for all the 3 games in the group stage and Italy were qualified as the runners up of the group. In the round of 16, Italy were drawn against the Group D winners, South Korea. At the 72nd minute, Zambrotta suffered a serious thigh injury after a very harsh tackle by the Korean defender. He was brought off the field and Italy lost the game in the extra time after a 1-1 draw.

In 2003, after the retirement of Paolo Maldini from the national team and a successful switch to the left-back with Juventus, Zambrotta became the first choice for this position in the national team. On 30 May 2004, Zambrotta scored his first ever international goal in the game against Tunisia. A Bernardo Corradi header was flapped out for Zambrotta's fierce volley into the roof of the net at the 89th minute while Italy won the game by 4-0. In Euro 2004, although the performance of Italy was largely disappointing and were eliminated at the group stage, Zambrotta was one of the few Italian players who got praises for their performances.

Present

After two consecutive disappointing major tournaments, Trapattoni resigned as the coach of the Azzurri. The new coach for Italy is Marcello Lippi, who just resigned as the Juventus coach by that time. At the end of 2005, as Lippi brought on many new faces for the squad, he once again switched Zambrotta's position - to the right-back this time.