Sporting Idol
A lot of names come into your mind when you think of the great sporting events which have occurred since the turn of the century. The most obvious name is David Beckham, who aside from being a global style and sporting icon, has carried a level of professionalism with him which has seen a lot of football fans alter their views about him.
In rugby you have a man like Johnny Wilkinson, who at the pinnacle of his career at the World Cup in 2003 looked unstoppable. Since then a mass of various injuries have hampered his career, but not halted it. It’s an incredible achievement that he is now playing for Toulon and breaking back into the England squad when until recently he was contemplating retirement. A true testament to what perseverance and belief can achieve and a good reason why he should be considered an icon.
But my choice of sporting icon is not an obvious one, especially considering the fact that I am a Spurs fan. No it’s not Henry! My choice is the true gentlemen of football, Gianfranco Zola.
Theres no doubting the fact that Zola was a popular figure in English football whilst playing for Chelsea. He had an incredible amount of style and skill but unlike a lot of his teammates, remained low-key and publicity shy, an element of his personality which a lot of pundits and fans appreciated and made him endearing.
Zola joined Chelsea in 1996 but as we are only covering the post-2000 years I will not go into detail about those early years, which incidentally included the Football Writers Player of the Year award in his first season.
In 2000 Zola was one of the main architects as Chelsea won the FA Cup, setting up Di Matteo for the winning goal against Aston Villa. In his final season at Chelsea 2002-03 he scored 16 goals and was a massive contributor to Chelsea qualifying for the Champions League. Since then Zola has been voted as Chelsea’s greatest ever player and his goal against Norwich in the FA Cup in 2002 is now seen as one of the best ever goals in the competition.
My main reason behind naming Zola as a sporting idol though, came towards the end of his career. He was born in Sardinia and had always said he would finish his career there. In 2003 he made a verbal agreement with Cagliari, the biggest club in the region, that he would play for them the following season. Abramovich, the new Chelsea owner offered Zola wage increases and extended contracts to break his agreement with Cagliari and stay at Chelsea, but Zola stayed true to his word. Its rumoured that Abramovich even tried to buy Cagliari when Zola turned him down!
He stayed with the club for two years, helping them win promotion to Serie A and then playing a major role in keeping the club in the top division, scoring two goals against Juventus in his final game as a professional footballer.
Since then Zola has been assistant Manager for the Italian under-21′s and is now the manager of West Ham United. Even now, as a Premiership manager, undoubtably one of the most stressful jobs in sport, he stills carries himself with great dignity, a trait I hope he will filter into many of his players mentalities.
Zola after signing as West Ham United manager
There are so few players like Zola in football now. Players who are still infatuated by the beauty of the game rather than how much money they can make. I would struggle now to name more than a handful of players who would return home to play for a second division side, rather than get paid bucket loads to play in the Premiership for one its top sides. I realise that I have not chosen a sportsperson who was in his prime during the last ten years, but I have chosen someone who is undoubtably an icon and a player who should be looked up to. He should be admired for not only his skill and creativity, but also the way in which he conducted himself both on and off the pitch.
