Cannavaro excited about Dubai move

(GSM) – Former Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro, who has signed a two-year deal with Dubai’s Al Ahli, claimed his move to the Gulf is not for financial reasons. The World Cup-winning defender will be joined at the United Arab Emirates’ champions by former Aston Villa and Leeds United manager David O’Leary.

“It wasn’t an economic choice, it was a family choice,” Cannavaro told reporters on Sunday.

“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.”

Cannavaro, 36, admitted his sadness at not being able to finish his playing career at his home-town team of Napoli.

“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,” said the 2006 World Player of the Year.

Cannavaro brushed-aside talk about Italy being too old after the 2006 World champions were shockingly eliminated in the first round after finishing bottom of a group containing minnows New Zealand and first-time qualifiers Slovakia.

“Italy wasn’t the oldest team, there were four or five other teams that had older players than us,” said the former Real Madrid defender who won the last of his 136 international caps in the 3-2 loss to Slovakia.

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

Cannavaro has also predicted that either Germany or Spain would win the tournament.

“It has been a World Cup full of surprises,” said Cannavaro. “Four good teams have reached the semi-finals and Germany and Spain are my favourites, but I have a lot of friends in both teams and so don’t want to say which team will win.”

Cannavaro has enjoyed a distinguished career where he has played at Real Madrid, Juventus, Internazionale and Parma after making his Serie A debut at Napoli in 1993.