FEATURE KAKA

AC Milan and Brazil playmaker Kaka was awarded the 2007 Ballon d'Or by French magazine France Football yesterday.

Kaka, who won the Champions League with Milan last season, beat Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Barcelona's Lionel Messi of Argentina, who were second and third respectively.

Until last year, when Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro won the award after leading his side to World Cup glory in Germany, 52 European journalists voted for a player from a European club.

For this year's award, 96 journalists from around the world voted and the shortlist of 50 players featured players based in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Qatar.

"The only way you can win this award is being part of a team of fighters. So I thank my team mates, my coach and also my team mates in the Selecao," Kaka told French television channel TF1.

"Also, thank you to all those who have been beside me throughout my career."

The elegant Kaka is already the winner of the FIFPro world Player of the Year and UEFA European Club Player of the Year awards and is the big favourite for FIFA's World Player of the Year award to be announced later this month.

His 10 goals in guiding Milan to their seventh European Cup triumph in May set up this flurry of awards in a year without a World Cup or European championship.
Ballon d'Or winners.

GIANFRANCO ZOLA NAMED AS MANAGER OF WEST HAM

When Alan Curbishley stepped down as manager of West Ham, many names were linked with the vacant job. Of these names, two Italians were listed to be in the running: Roberto Donadoni, who was fresh off his 2 year reign as Italian National Team manager and speaks fluent English after his stint in MLS with the Metrostars, and Gianfranco Zola, who spent 7 seasons with Chelsea in the EPL, making 249 appearances and scoring 89 goals, and was most recently an assistant to Pierluigi Casiraghi for the Italy U-21 squad. Both Donadoni and Zola were interviewed, and then rumors came out that West Ham were all set to name Zola as manager (with Donadoni releasing a statement that he had withdrawn his name from the running). On Tuesday, after the U21 qualifier vs. Croatia, Zola responded to questions about the job and said he would reveal everything on Wednesday. Yesterday Zola announced he was about to sign with West Ham, and today it became official, with the Sardinian fantasista signing a 3 year deal worth around 4.5 million pounds.

This is 42 year old Zola’s first ever head coaching job, and the only previous experience he has is his assistant job with the Italy U-21’s. Zola has experience playing in the EPL and speaks the language, so he shouldn’t have much a problem adapting to England. However it remains to be seen if he has the necessary experience to be successful at such a high level. Zola is West Ham’s first ever non-British manager. Also West Ham’s director of football is Italian Gianluca Nani, who used to be the director of football at Brescia and discovered such talents as Marek Hamsik, Fabiano Santacroce, and Emiliano Viviano just to name a few. Zola will also find another Italian at West Ham in striker David Di Michele, who arrived from Torino on loan during the transfer window.

Zola’s first words as West Ham boss were, “At Chelsea I had some great years, but I wanted to find a new challenge and I know West Ham can be a successful club.” Then he talked about his time as U-21 assistant, “I’ve always liked to work with young players, but the offer I was presented with was irrefutable.” He also says because he was an attacking player he likes to play attacking football and his team will be fun to watch.

I wish Zola luck because it’s always great to see Italians doing good abroad.more detail

JUVENTUS LEGENDS: ZINEDINE ZIDANE

Damn the international breaks, seriously. Could there be any worse timing? We get one weekend of Serie A and then have to wait two weeks till the next one. It’s just one big tease.In the meantime, I wrote up a profile on Zizou, who I personally believe to be the greatest player of all time. Not Maradona, not Pele, who certainly were tremendous players, but Zinedine Yazid Zidane. He’s mostly known for his days with Les Bleus and the Galacticos at Madrid, but I believe his greatest years were at La Vecchia Signora. Among the silverware he picked up in Turin were two Scudetti, an International Cup, and unfortunately, two Uefa Champion’s League runners-up medals. Personally, he earned Uefa’s Club Best Midfielder, FIFA World Player of the Year (twice), and of course, the Ballon d’Or. He also was in the top 3 shortlist for the Ballon d’Or twice, aside from his victory in 1998. Interesting fact about his European Footballer of the Year award, his landslide victory is the most lopsided of the last 17 years.

Zinedine Zidane was born in Marseille, France in 1972. He started playing for AS Cannes in the French league after which at age 20 he transferred to Bordeaux, where he lead the team to an Intertoto cup win as well as finishing runners-up in the Uefa cup. According to a bio over at a Blackburn Rovers fan page, team owner Jack Walker declined to sign Zidane, saying “Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?” (I have never heard of Sherwood. That either speaks massively of Walker’s error or just of my sheer ignorance of the Premiership) In the end, Juventus signed him for £3 million at the age of 24.more detail