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Gianluca Zambrotta
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Gianluca Zambrotta (born February 19, 1977 in Como) is an Italian football player. He is comfortable playing on either wing as a defender or midfielder. He currently plays for Juventus of Serie A in a jersey numbered 19.Zambrotta started his career with his hometown team Como Calcio at the age of 17 in 1994. In his first season with Como in Serie B he played only one game. In 1995, Como were relegated to the Serie C1 and Zambrotta started to play more regularly for the first team. In the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons, he made 47 appearances and scored 6 goals for Como In 1997, Zambrotta's Serie A career have begun when his great potential was spotted by the A.S. Bari boss Eugenio Fascetti. Zambrotta was snapped up by Fascetti after Bari had won promotion to the Serie A. In his first year in the top flight, Zambrotta was playing on the left wing and scored 2 goals in 27 appearances. In the 1998-99 season, following the departure of Nicola Ventola, Zambrotta exploded on to the scene. In Week 1, he scored the only goal of the game against Venezia after just 9 minutes into the first half. Zambrotta continued to shine and was the key figure for Bari's surprise start to the campaign. In Week 7, he scored the opening goal at San Siro and helped Bari to win the game 3-2 against Inter. In February 1999, the Italian Under-21 International was rewarded by the coach of Italy, Dino Zoff, for his impressive displays. He earned his first cap in a friendly against Norway. He became the first player of Bari to play for the national side in 50 years. Throughout the 1998-99 season, he made 32 appearances and got on the score sheet for 4 times. Halfway through this season, he was brought to the most successful club in Italy, Juventus, by Carlo Ancelotti for €15.85M and would play in the black-and-white jersey starting the season afte |
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