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Zola leaves a legend

GUARDIAN, London
When foreign footballers arrive in the Premier League, it has become customary for their manager to add the caveat: "He'll take time to settle."
But not only did Gianfranco Zola, who bade farewell to Chelsea on Monday after seven seasons with the club, make an immediate impact by winning footballer of the year in his first season, he also found himself hailed as a model professional. It was English football that had to adapt to him.
It is little surprise that within 24 hours of becoming Chelsea's owner, Roman Abramovich had offered £
3m for just one more season from the Italian. The Russian, a teetotal non-smoker, had never met the similarly abstemious Zola but could immediately recognise the impact of losing last season's top scorer as being more than just his 16 goals.
Zola will benefit in this, his 38th year, from a lifetime's self-denial with a season at Cagliari, his native Sardinia's representative in Serie B. Ahead of the medals and the memories Zola rightly considers his honourable reputation to be the biggest accomplishment of his time in England.
"My greatest satisfaction is off the pitch - for the way people consider me and the respect they gave me," said Zola, the £4.5m buy in 1996 who was last season voted Chelsea's best ever player. "Many people excel in games but when you have achieved that respect it is special.
"Money can give you many things but these sort of things cannot be bought. What I achieved in the way people regard me is remarkable for me."
Watching Zola train has had a similar effect on Chelsea's youngsters as the spur London Marathon runners must feel when overtaken by Sir Jimmy Saville. But Abramovich's £3m price on that inspiration came 48 hours too late.
Though he is too much a gentleman to admit it openly, privately Zola feels let down that the Chelsea chairman Ken Bates failed to let him know that a rescue package that would have allowed him to remain was on its way.
The forward had given his word to Cagliari that he would spearhead their promotion campaign if he was not offered an acceptable new deal by the time his previous contract expired last Tuesday.
"At first, although I had other offers, I wasn't thinking of leaving Chelsea," revealed Zola. "It was not my idea but unfortunately Chelsea were in a bad situation and couldn't find an agreement.
"This went on until July 1 when my contract expired and I couldn't leave the other [clubs] hanging on, I had to do something then. I don't blame Chelsea; they had more important problems than renewing my contract.
"But I feel bad. I feel sad. It was a painful decision for me to leave. When Chelsea came back in, it was a very difficult couple of hours for
However great the wrench of leaving Stamford Bridge is, it was not the first time Zola had headed for the exit. An end-of-season meeting with Gianluca Vialli broke down as Zola was told to remodel his game
on that of his then manager.
Zola complained to Bates, intimating that, if Vialli wanted another Vialli, he would have to leave. That the discreet Zola should have expressed such disquiet was enough to signal to Bates that his manager had lost the dressing room. Eight weeks into the new season, Vialli was sacked.
Yet even that lowest episode of Zola's Chelsea career is recalled in diplomatic terms. "With Gianluca there were moments where we had different opinions but that doesn't mean I don't have respect for some-
one. I always respected Vialli and I think he always respected me."
Yet Zola always earned such respect. Able to punch more than his 10st 10lb, it would be hard to find anyone in football who would disparage him.
So English football has emerged from its dark ages with Zola as one of the torchbearers, but the relationship has been reciprocal. The Italian recognises the devotion of English fans to the game.
Recalling the last day of the 199798 Premiership season, he said: "I will never forget when we played
Bolton at home when we needed a draw to get to the Uefa Cup and they needed a draw to avoid relegation.
"We won 2-0 and their supporters started clapping us. That really says something."
It is all too easy to be hyperbolic in the overblown world of football but Zola is one of the very few players to merit special treatment. He received that yesterday as, at the end of his farewell press conference, he was given an ovation by the journalists.