Cannavaro's next challenge

Former Italy skipper relishing new challenge

By Razwan Mirza   Last updated: 4th July 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Cannavaro's next challenge

Cannavaro: New challenge

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Fabio Cannavaro insists that he is not moving to Dubai for the money after the former Italy World Cup-winning captain signed a two-year contract with Al-Ahli.

The 36-year-old defender will join David O'Leary at the Rashid Stadium after the Irishman was named the new head coach of the 2009 United Arab Emirates champions.

The former Juventus and Real Madrid centre-back was adamant that his decision to move to the Middle East was never money orientated.

"It wasn't an economic choice, it was a family choice," Cannavaro told reporters.

"Here, there's not as much pressure as in the leagues I'm used to and I would like to help the younger players to gain from my experience and to help them win something important in their future."

Regrets

Cannavaro, however, said he regretted not being able to fulfil his ambition of finishing his career at home-town club Naples.

"I was born in Naples so it would have been a nice thing, but we and Naples didn't have the same ideas for the future, so I'm happy to have taken this new road for me and my family," he said.

The 2006 World Player of the Year would not be drawn on Italy's World Cup failure.

The defending champions finished bottom of a group containing New Zealand, Paraguay and Slovakia.

"Italy wasn't the oldest team, there were four or five other teams that had older players than us," said the defender who won 136 international caps during his illustrious career.

"The real problem was that we had a big change since 2006. I think that affected our performance."

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