Sir Zola takes the field. The former champion is ready to return to the world of made in Italy football and not to coach: he presents himself in a surprise ticket for the elections of the leaders of the Serie C League, with the presidential candidate Matteo Marani.
Zola runs in tandem with the journalist for a deputy position. The appointment is set for February 9 in Rome, when the C clubs will have to choose the successor to Francesco Ghirelli (the former president resigned before Christmas) . At the moment the unofficial candidacies are those of Marani, in fact, and Marcel Vulpis who, former vice president of Lega Pro, had announced his choice to run for president in recent weeks. Marani communicated Zola's name to a group of C clubs and will make the candidacy official in the next few days. The former striker's name could represent an ace up his sleeve, and above all it would be a return to Italian football, he who now lives between his homeland, Sardinia, and his second homeland, London.
The 55-year-old former Sardinian playmaker from Oliena, in addition to his victories as a footballer and his appearances in the blue, is well aware of the reality of the other categories and in particular of the Serie C championship, in which he showed off at the end of the 80s , wearing the Torres shirt, the Sassari team then coached by Bebo Leonardi and then by Franco Liguori. Then Napoli, the scudetto with Maradona, the inherited 10, Parma and in '96 the move to Chelsea, where Zola became a magic box for his ability to extract top hat feats, as well as being a baronet of Queen Elizabeth. So England became his second home. The end of his career with Cagliari, for a life choice as an authentic champion.
But now Zola is ready to make himself available to his football again. As far as the presidency is concerned, pending the deadlines for submitting the candidacies, we are moving towards a challenge between two (journalists), between Vulpis and Marani who, after the resignation of Francesco Ghirelli from the position of top manager, will compete for the presidency of the Lega Pro, i.e. from Serie C. The third professional league has a certain weight, 17 percent, in the election of the president of the Football Federation. And it is no coincidence that Gabriele Gravina himself, number 1 in the FIGC, is watching this election with some attention: 59 clubs will be voting (all except Juventus, the only club that has joined the second team project).
