Gianfranco Zola OBE!

mike65

Chelsea legend Zola awarded OBE

Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola is to be awarded an OBE in a special ceremony in Rome on Monday.

The British embassy described Zola as "the most enduring and popular foreign player in the history of Chelsea" and praised his support for charities.

Zola played for the Blues for seven years but returned to Italy to finish his career with Cagliari in 2003 and will retire at the end of this season.

The Italian international, 38, moved to London for £4.5m from Parma in 1996.

Zola scored 80 goals and helped the club win six trophies during his seven seasons at Stamford Bridge.

"The 2002-2003 season was his last with Chelsea, and he left the club with style, scoring 16 goals," the embassy said.

"Despite the pleas of fans to remain with the team, he decided to return to his native Sardinia in 2003, having made a remarkable contribution to English football."

I think its great that a foreign player can get that sort of offical recognition from a country not his own.

Mike.

uberwolf

yeah I like this.

/can't believe they won six trophies in seven years. All I can remember was the thrashing utd gave them in teh FA cup final donkeys ago

A Dub in Glasgo

I think he should tell the Queen to stick the Order of British Empire up her back side... He does not need to accept such subservitude nonsense to be recognised.

mike65

I think he should tell the Queen to stick the Order of British Empire up her back side... He does not need to accept such subservitude nonsense to be recognised.

rofl, how predictable was that?!

Mike.

A Dub in Glasgo

Sorry, I was meant to say. I don't think Zola needs to accept this award as he is already one of the finest footballers to grace the EP. For some reason, it came out as above

gandalf

Maybe he would like to accept it as he doesn't have the political baggage you have

A Dub in Glasgo

It is good to have some political baggage or as some others call it... principles

Down with the witch!

gandalf

Maybe you can keep to topic and talk about a good footballer and if you want to talk about that crap take it to the politics board ok !

A Dub in Glasgo

Yep Zola is an excellent player and I don't think he should accept this 'award', purely footballing reasons of couse

gandalf

Obviously :rolleyes:

mike65

*sigh* Any Chelsea fans like to use this opportunity to extole the sublime skills of the man himself?

Mike.

Big Ears

Im not a Chelsea fan , but he is possibly the finest of foreign players to grace the Premier League .

His last season at Chelsea really showed what quality he was , as he was scoring and creating goals freely even at the age of 35/36 .

and that goal of his against Norwich in the FA cup , stays close my mind when I think of great cup goals .

Gianfranco Zolo = Legend .