FCBARCELONA.CAT

13.06.2008 09:00

First choice for two seasons

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Despite being a regular first team player for two seasons, Zambrotta will now leave the club after being unable to agree new terms.

Zambrotta was a world champion with Italy in Germany and twice won the Serie A title with Juventus. With this experience behind him Gianluca Zambrotta joined Barça’s ranks. The deal was made official on 19 July 2006 and the Italian joined the Barça squad in the United States on 5 August.
The Italian defender, who was included in the 2006 World Cup XI, offered Rijkaard the possibility of playing on both sides of the pitch. He played on the left with Juventus but on the right with the national team. He almost always played right full back with Barça and quickly became an automatic choice.

Debut

Zambrotta made his Barça debut in the Spanish Super Cup in Montjuïc on 17 August 2006. He came on in the 81st minute as a substitute for Puyol. A Giuly goal won the game and Barça finished the job off in the Nou Camp with a 3-0 victory.

Statistics

Zambrotta played 58 league games, 11 cup games, 1 Spanish Super Cup game and 13 games in the Champions League.

Despite playing as a right full back, the Italian always tried to get involved in any attack and managed to score three goals, all great goals, and all of them coming in last year’s league campaign. His first came on 17 March 2007 in the Nuevo Colombino in Huelva; the second away to Atletico Madrid in the 0-6 rout; and the third in the last game of the season against Gimnastic of Tarragona.

This season

Zambrotta improved all the time and became an automatic first team player. In the first part of the season he shared the right back position with Carles Puyol and also lost nine games through injury. He was the eighth most used player by Rijkaard. Zambrotta played 29 league games, 7 champions League games and five games in the King’s Cup.

Against Multiple Sclerosis

Since 2004, Gianluca Zambrotta has collaborated with the Italian Association for Multiple Sclerosis (AISM). According to the Italian, “we sportsmen are much loved by our supporters and, with little effort, we can help a lot with, and get a lot of people actively involved in understanding an illness like Multiple Sclerosis”.