Dino Zoff is considered among the best goalkeepers in the history of football. This outstanding player enjoyed rare sports longevity, playing at highest level until the age of 41. Zoff spent his entire career in four clubs – Udinese, Mantova, Napoli and Juventus. With them he recorded a total of 642 appearances for 22 years. For the national team Zoff appeared 112 times, ranking third in the history of Italian football. The highlight of the active career of the goalkeeper came when he was 40 years old, when he was the captain of the Italian national team at the World Cup tournament in Spain in 1982, leading his compatriots to the world title. With this achievement Dino Zoff broke a number of records, which remain still unbeaten today. He became the oldest player ever to win the trophy and one of two goalkeepers in history that were captains of a World Cup winning team. After he retired from active sport, Zoff became a coach and achieved success with Juventus, winning the UEFA Cup in 1990. He passed through Lazio and Fiorentina, as well as a short stay as a manager of the Italian national side at Euro 2000, where he led the team to the silver medal.

Alessandro Del Piero is the living legend of Juventus and Italian football. This superb player has played for the club from Turin since 1993 and is its best goal scorer of all time with his 165 goals achieved in 392 games . Before coming to Juventus Alessandro played for the youth formation of San Vendemiano until 1988 and then spent five years in Padova. The genial striker won the Italian title five timesand added all major club trophies in the world to his collection, including the UEFA Champions League in 1996. The biggest success for Del Piero is the World Cup title with the national team from Germany 2006, when Italy defeated France on penalties in the final. Six years earlier, Del Piero and Italy missed the title from the European Championship after a dramatic loss against the same rival. The striker has played for the national team since 1995 and has 85 appearances and 27 goals with the blue jersey. This places him as the fourth best scorer for Italy of all times. Alessandro Del Piero possesses many individual prizes as well, including the Golden Foot award and Italian Footballer of the Year in 1998. Furthermore, the prominent Italian was elected by FIFA as one of the 125 greatest living players.

Valentino Rossi is the dominating motorcycle racer during the last few years and already one of the most successful figures in this sport. The Italian has won titles in all three categories of the World Championships. In 1997 he became champion in the 125cc category with Aprilia in his second season in the Grand Prix series. Then he moved in the higher category, 250cc, where his title came in 1999. Then he entered the highest class Moto GP (the former 500cc category) and won five consecutive world titles in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. During these years he represented the teams of Honda and Yamaha. Currently Rossi races for the Fiat Yamaha Team. As one of the greatest pilots ever, Valentino Rossi holds several records in the GP series, such as those for most races won and most podium standings in one season.

Alberto Tomba, nicknamed “La Bomba” due to his explosive style, is one of the legendary and most loved alpine skiers in the world. His international career started in 1981 when he appeared at the Junior World Championship, where he finished fourth in the Giant Slalom. Thus Tomba became member of the B national team of his country and began racing in the European Cup circuit. His debut in the World Cup was in 1985, and two years later he enjoyed his first win at this level. At the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary the 21-year-old youngster shocked the experts by winning the titles in Slalom and Giant Slalom. After a few modest seasons, La Bomba achieved great success at the 1992 Olympic Games, defending his title in the Giant Slalom and finishing second in the Slalom. In 1995 the Italian finally won the overall World Cup title after winning 11 consecutive races. The next year he became two-time world champion in Sierra Nevada. During his astounding career Alberto Tomba claimed a total of 50 World Cup victories, which makes him one of the most successful skiers of all times. La Bomba ended his career in 1998, winning his last race in Crans Montana.

Roberto Baggio is universally accepted as one of the finest and most technical football players in the history. The genial striker changed clubs several times over the lifetime of his career. He started his professional career in the club of Vicenza at the age of 15. There his talent was noticed by Fiorentina and he moved to one of the greatest clubs in Italy when he was 18. The youngster rapidly became the star of the club and in 1990 was transferred to Juventus, where he scored 115 goals in 201 appearances, won a number of Italian and European trophies and spent his best years. During the rest of his active career Baggio passed through AC Milan, Bologna, Inter Milan and Brescia before retiring in 2004. Playing for the national team the striker recorded 56 appearances and 27 goals. His biggest success was the silver medal from the World Cup in 1994, where Italy lost the final to Brazil on penalties, with Baggio missing the last one. A multitude of individual awards complete his rich collection. The most valuable among them are the European Footballer of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year awards.

Born at Cassano d'Adda in the province of Milan, Valentino Mazzola is known as one of the legendary Milanese football players who died in the infamous disaster involving a Superga aircraft in the 1940s. Mazzola first became interested in pursuing a career as a football player when he noticed a team playing near the factory in which he was working. Although Mazzola applied to the team almost immediately, he was accepted just before the outbreak of World War II. In 1939 Mazzola had to quit the team in order to join the Italian Army. While stationed near Venice, he began attending the trainings of a local football team, Venezia AC, but his initial achievements were rather underwhelming. Mazzola's first break came in 1941, when he led the team to victory in the Coppa Italia Final. Soon, the young player caught the attention of a rival football team from Torino, who eventually bought Mazzola out of his team. With Torino, Mazzola enjoyed a string of successes, winning the League title in 1943, 1946 and 1948. In 1949, Mazzola's team won the last title they would get until the mid-1970s. During his eight-year career at Venezia and Torino, the celebrated player scored 109 goals. On May 4, 1949, when Mazzola and his team were flying back from a game in Lisbon, their Superga aircraft crashed, killing all but one man on board.

Milan is my life and I would not play for Chelsea.

This famous Italian football player is a defender for AC Milan. The son of Cesare Maldini, the national football team member, Paolo followed in his father’s footstep and devoted his career entirely to the club of the city he was raised in. In 1985, he first appeared in the top division (Series A) and since then has gathered many trophies for the club and honours for himself. Though still in good shape, he announced his retirement at the end of the 2006/07 season, and on February 20th, 2007, Maldini played for the 100th time in a Champions League game. What's more, he’s renowned as the fastest in the Champion's League final ever to have scored a goal – only 51 seconds after the beginning of the game. Maldini has two sons, one of them already an AC Milan junior player.