Ciro Ferrara

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Ciro Ferrara (born February 11, 1967) is an Italian former football defender, who spent most of his career at Juventus. He retired from football after the 2004-05 season.

A native of Naples, Ferrara started his career at SSC Napoli before moving to Juventus in 1994. He became captain soon after joining the team, and soon became one of the most experienced and decorated players, winning seven Serie A championships (five with Juventus, two with Napoli - this excludes the 2004/05 title taken away from Juventus due to the match-fixing scandal), two Italian Cups (one with each team), three Italian Super Cups (two with Juventus, one with Napoli) and several European competitions (including the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, Intercontinental Cup and European Super Cup).

When playing at SSC Napoli he played with football genius Diego Maradona. He even lived nextdoor to him at the time he played at Napoli.

Since 2000, Ferrara's role on Juventus declined; although he was an experienced and dominating defender, he generally played as a substitute—his role as captain was taken over by fellow Italian Alessandro Del Piero. In 1996-97, one of his peak seasons, he scored four goals in 32 Serie A competitions, while also being capped eight times internationally. Ironically, his first professional match, while at Napoli, was played against Juventus (it was a 0-0 draw).

[edit] International

For Italy, Ferrara was capped 49 times and played one game each at the 1990 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000. His brilliance however was never truly realised at international level despite this impressive tally of caps. There are two reasons for this. First of all Italy had a host of other world class players in his position that often blocked his route. These include Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta, Mauro Tassotti, Pietro Vierchowod, Riccardo Ferri, Giuseppe Bergomi, Paolo Maldini, and later in his career Fabio Cannavaro, and Alessandro Nesta. Secondly Ferrara was very unfortunate with injuries. This was most notable in the build up to the 1998 World Cup in France. Ferrara, aged 31 at the time, was at the peak of his career, and had just had 3 superb seasons at Juventus. In 96-97 and 97-98 he was quite possibly the best defender in Italy, and he was a regular in the Italy line-up. However Ferrara suffered a serious injury several weeks before the World Cup and missed the tournament. He was replaced by Cannavaro who had a superb world cup. From this time on Ferrara was a reserve for Italy whereas Cannavaro went on to achieve legendary status. Had Ferrara not suffered this injury, many believe he would have been one of the stars of France '98 as he was in the peak of his career. For this reason he is not so well-known outside his native-country, but within Italy he is regarded as just another in a long-line of world class Italian defenders.

Ciro Ferrara was part of the Italian technical staff for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. After the World Cup success he later become part of Juventus' staff with former defending team mate Gianluca Pessotto who is also part of the staff at Juventus.

[edit] Trivia

Ferrara is renowned for his excellent singing voice, which can be heard on the Juventus squad's recording of the Lucio Battisti classic 'Il Mio Canto Libero'.

[edit] Honours

• 7 Italian Championships (1986/87, 1989/90, 1994/95, 1996/97, 1997/98, 2001/02, 2002/03)
• 1 Champions League (1995/96)
• 1 Intercontinental Cup (1996)
• 1 European Super Cup (1996/97)
• 1 UEFA Cup (1988/89)
• 2 Coppa Italia (1986/87, 1994/95)
• 5 Italian Super Cups (1990, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2003)

v • d • e Italy squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup Third Place 1 Zenga • 2 Baresi • 3 Bergomi • 4 De Agostini • 5 Ferrara • 6 Ferri • 7 Maldini • 8 Vierchowod • 9 Ancelotti • 10 Berti • 11 De Napoli • 12 Tacconi • 13 Giannini • 14 Marocchi • 15 Baggio • 16 Carnevale • 17 Donadoni • 18 Mancini • 19 Schillaci • 20 Serena • 21 Vialli • 22 Pagliuca • Coach: Vicini

v • d • e Italy squad - UEFA Euro 2000 Runners-up 1 Abbiati • 2 Ferrara • 3 Maldini • 4 Albertini • 5 Cannavaro • 6 Negro • 7 Di Livio • 8 Conte • 9 Inzaghi • 10 Del Piero • 11 Pessotto • 12 Toldo • 13 Nesta • 14 Di Biagio • 15 Iuliano • 16 Ambrosini • 17 Zambrotta • 18 Fiore • 19 Montella • 20 Totti • 21 Delvecchio • 22 Antonioli • Coach: Zoff