Chelsea quickly became a favourite team for the title after Russian billionaire Abramovich took over! Especially during the coaching period of meritorious manager Jose Mourinho, when only Chelsea could restrain them in Barcelona.
Today's Chelsea has long become a force in European football after the precipitation of time. Since the beginning of the new century, the team has seen many superstars like Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Cech and many others! Some of them are local players and some are foreign players outside the home country, but if they want to talk about the best players in the club's history, their predecessor, the Italian Zola, may be more qualified.
Born in Italy in 1966, Gianfranco Zola is not tall compared to many footballers, but is small and short. The history of football is not without small geniuses, such as The Argentine king Maradona, the German midfield engine Hassler and the famous short-legged tiger Zhao Dayu in our country.
Since his father held the position of principal of a football school, Zola began training in football from an early age. Zola was fascinated by football, trained hard, honed his skills, and at the age of eighteen he joined a C-league team to start his career.
Zola played four seasons for both teams in the Third Division, scoring 21 goals. In 1989, Napoli in Serie A took a fancy to Zola's football talent and included him.
In the 89 season, Napoli was full of big names, and maradona was in the team at that time, and others like Carreca and Ferrara were also the top superstars at that time.
Being teammates with superstars has pros and cons for a young player, the downside is not playing much, more of a cold bench! The advantage is that you can watch the training matches of the superstars every day, and learn from the superstars that the football school cannot give. That season Zola learned a lot by watching Maradona's training and games.
Zola spent four years at Napoli, helping the team win a league title before moving to Parma.
After coming to Parma, Zola began to have his own stage to show his talents, he used his technique and speed to penetrate the opponent's defense line again and again, and in that Parma team Zola's technique was almost unparalleled!
Sacchi, then Italian coach at the 1994 World Cup, brought the skilled Zola with him, which was Zola's first World Cup trip and his last! For such a genius, it is time for italy full of talents, and it is impossible to meet the manager who understands and appreciates himself, and it is often said that Maxima often has it and Bole does not often have it! This phrase is most aptly applied to Zora.
In the 94Thm World Cup, although Zola was selected for Italy's final list, Sacchi preferred the combination of Baggio and Signori at that time, and Zola had to be with the bench.
In the crucial match against Nigeria, Zola was able to come off the bench, as if God was deliberately trying to embarrass Zora! The referee ended Zola's World Cup trip with a red card, just ten minutes! Zola only had ten minutes from the time he came on as a substitute to the time he was sent off the red card, which was a huge blow to Zola's national team career!
Life always goes on! Although the national team struggled, Zola remained an important player in Parma, winning two major trophies, a European Super Cup and a UEFA Cup for the team in four years.
After a frustrating European Championship in '96, Zola joined Premier League side Chelsea for £4.5 million at the age of thirty.
Being able to pay a huge sum of 4.5 million for a thirty-year-old shows how much Chelsea values Zola. Their efforts were eventually rewarded, and Zora would later become a meritorious figure at Stamford Bridge.
In his first season with Chelsea, Zola played well, he was like an elf through the long and forested field, when the Premier League was still physically focused, facing a short but technical player, they could not get a clue for a while, Zola was also like a fish. That season, led by him and Dutch "braided coach" Gullit, the team brought back an FA Cup title for Chelsea fans!
In the 97-98 season Zola remained outstanding, and under his leadership, Chelsea won another continental event , the European Cup Winners' Cup. It is an important event with the European Champions Cup and the European Cup, which is called the three major European Cups, and its gold content is self-evident.
Zola had great success in England, his appearance made the stout Englishman aware of the style of the little fast, and his phenomenal performance at Chelsea also led to his election as The English Footballer of the Year, which was not easy for an Italian, after all, the English football world was not as open to the European continent as it is now.
Zola only joined Chelsea at the age of thirty, which did not prevent him from becoming the darling of the team. After Abu joined the team, relying on the strong gold dollar to buy many big-name players in succession, Zola took the initiative to make way for young players as a team merit, and gradually faded out of the team.
Zola played a total of seven seasons at Chelsea, scoring eight goals in 25 appearances in his first season, finishing sixth.
In his second season he scored 13 goals in 37 appearances, finishing third. It was also this season that he was really targeted by Premier League defenders, so Zora did not score many goals in the following season.
In Zola's last season for Chelsea, the 02-03 season, at the age of thirty-seven, he was still able to score 14 goals in the league for the team, which made many prime-age players ashamed!
Zola's influence on Chelsea was unprecedented before Abu and Mourinho took over, and the first thing that came to mind when Chelsea came to mind was Zola. So when it came to judging the best player in the club's history, Zola was finally elected, which is also the biggest affirmation of his Chelsea career.