3 – Gianluca Zambrotta
Gianluca Zambrotta has been the best interpreter of the role of the fullback in the last decade. He is an interesting case-study, a player that stands in contrast to some of Italy’s greatest footballers in that role. He certainly never had the vertiginous quality of someone like Tarcisio Burgnich or the previously-mentioned Paolo Maldini, and he was anything but a revolutionary like Giacinto Facchetti.
In fact, you could even say that Zambrotta was formulaic, as his attribute was not originality but consistency. He was a very fast player, excellent defensively, accurate in passing and crossing, and highly disciplined (the red card in the Euro 2000 semi-final, his debut tournament, is the only stain on an otherwise faultless career).
This made him the first choice for the position of right-back for almost ten years, and one of the core components of Italy’s legendary 2006 defensive line. His quarter-final against Ukraine still stands, in this writer’s opinion, as the best game ever played by an Azzurri full-back in a World Cup, inclusive of a beautiful goal, an assist, and a save on the line.
Perhaps Zambrotta best embodies the style of coach Marcello Lippi, who famously disagreed with creative geniuses like Roberto Baggio and Antonio Cassano, and wanted to build a team that was cohesive and unassailable. Never anything less than very good, and occasionally brilliant, Zambrotta is one of the symbols of the Azzurri for this decade both technically and tactically, and he deserves to be honoured as one of Italy’s great fullbacks.
