Yeah, sure. Opponents knew who Gianfranco Zola was when he signed for Ruud Gullit’s Chelsea from Parma in November 1996. But knowing a player and knowing how to contain him are two very different things. No one ever quite lit up that gentle difference so flagrantly as Zola.
In 1996, Zola was a new beast in the Premier League; an unprecedented combination of footballing intelligence, a low centre of gravity and dancing feet. Watch grainy videos of Zola on YouTube, and it’s Zola's complete jurisdiction over direction that is so intoxicating; how effortlessly he sent defender after defender barrelling in one direction before sashaying past them in various mercurial thrills, a rush of thick, dark hair and billowing shirt sleeves. It was the gleeful effervescence of a footballing grim reaper.
For a fee of £5.6million, Zola provided entertainment not only for Chelsea fans but for fans across the League. Across 229 Premier League appearances for Chelsea, Zola scored 59 goals and provided 42 assists, a reflection of how Zola’s creativity was as devastating as his goalscoring, despite it providing a raft of goal compilations on social media.
