Germany strong favourites: Fabio

DUBAI — Italian soccer legend and Dubai resident Fabio Cannavaro reckons Germany will walk away with the Euro 2012 trophy.

One of the greatest defenders of his generation, Cannavaro gave his thoughts on the prospects of the various teams at this year’s competition during a question and answer (Q&A) session with the members and guests of the Capital Club Dubai, a leading private business club and a member of the ENSHAA group of companies.

Naming Germany as his favourites to take the honours he said: “The most important part of any teams success is their ability to play as a team.

“The number of big names in their line-up doesn’t matter nearly as much as how they work together, and the German team simply has done this best out of all the contenders for this years Euro Cup. They are quite simply a machine.”

Remarking on the evening Bill Loveday, Capital Club’s general manager, said: “It was a true pleasure to welcome Fabio to the Club and we were extremely pleased to give our members and their guests the chance to meet with this contemporary legend.

“Not only is he one of the undisputed greats of the modern game, but as the ultimate team player he represents all that makes football the game that it is.”

The evening saw Cannavaro in discussion with well known journalist and sports broadcaster Tom Urquhart.

Cannavaro, who is currently the brand ambassador for the Dubai-based football club Al Ahli, shared anecdotes from his illustrious career, including his experience as the captain of the 2006 Fifa World Cup winning Italian team and Fifa World Player of the Year — the only defender to date to walk away with the honour — in the same year.

He also reminisced about his favourite coaches and managers, and even spoke about the time when during a training session he, as a very young player, aggressively tackled one of the greatest footballers of all time, Diego Maradona.

Talking about that tackle, which went a long way towards creating his reputation as hard player, Cannavaro smiled saying, “I was working really hard to get noticed.

“I really wanted a place in the first team, and I didn’t even stop to think for a moment what I was really doing.

“I mean I was little more than a boy, and here I was tackling one of the greatest footballers ever seen, and my idol.

“As soon as the tackle was over, every one was up in arms, and it caused a big fuss, but Maradona himself defended me, and told everyone it was fine. We are still good friends to this day.”

sports@khaleejtimes.com