Italian professional football (soccer) player who led his country to a 2006 World Cup victory.

At age 11 Cannavaro began playing on the junior team for the S.S.C. Napoli (Naples) soccer club. In 1993 he was asked to play with Napoli's first team—at the highest level of Italian professional soccer. He performed solidly for them for two years before moving to Parma F.C., where he helped his new team win two Italian cups, the UEFA Cup, and the Italian Super Cup. In 2001 Cannavaro was named captain of the team. In 2002 he joined F.C. Internazionale (Inter Milan), where he spent two seasons, and then played for Juventus F.C. in Turin for two seasons. In 2006, after a match-rigging scandal, he announced that he was leaving Italian football to play with Real Madrid in Spain.

The most significant year of his career was 2006. As captain, Cannavaro led the Italian national team to a World Cup victory over France. He was named Best Italian Player and Best Defender by the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (Italian Footballers Association). Cannavaro went on to become the first defender in the 16-year history of the award to be named World Player of the Year by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). In 2006 he was named European Footballer of the Year, becoming the first Italian so honoured since 1993 and only the third defender ever to claim this distinction.