September 13 – Tanti Auguri Fabio

Tanti auguri a te,
Tanti auguri a te,
Tanti auguri a te,
Tanti auguri Fabio,
Tanti auguri a te.

And so say all of us. Today Fabio Cannavaro will be blowing out his candles, unwrapping his presents and listening intently to the radio in the hope someone has rung in and dedicated Joe Dulce’s classic hit Shaddupa Your Face for him as today he hits the big three-four.

Lets hope this birthday is better for Fabio than his last, when, playing for Real Madrid in the Champions League against Lyon, he was at fault for both goals in a 2-0 defeat for the Spanish giants.

An uncharacteristic lapse there for the famously short centre-half who has made a bit of a habit over the years of not conceding goals at all, and he’s usually pretty good at it.

So good in fact, that he is currently both European and World Player of the Year. No other defender is history has ever won the World Player award.

Fabio began his footballing life with his home town club Napoli, before financial troubles forced them to sell him to Parma.

At Parma Fabio, his defensive partner Lillian Thuram and goalkeeper Gigi Buffon formed one of the meanest defences in Serie A leading to Fabio being named three years in a row runner up as best defender in Italy. And apparently the Italians know a thing or two about defenders.

After a two year stint with Internazionale Fabio was on the move again, this time to Juventus where he finally won the best defender in Italy award, and two Scudetto titles in a row, which would subsequently be taken away following the Italian football corruption investigation.

As Juve were relegated as part of their punishment, Fabio followed his manager Fabio Capello to Real where he still plays today.

And he still found time to Captain Italy to win the World Cup in 2006. Nice.

Have a butcher’s hook at little Fabio’s defending exploits below, and pop back tomorrow for your next daily dose of football nostalgia.