West Ham United captain Mark Noble and former teammate Scott Parker attempted to convince ex-Chelsea and Italy star Gianfranco Zola to come out of retirement at the age of 43.
The Italian, whose glittering playing career saw him represent the likes of Chelsea, Napoli, Parma and win 35 caps for his country, became West Ham ’s manager in 2008 when replacing Alan Curbishley staying at the club until the end of the 2009/10 campaign.
His first season as manager saw the Hammers end in ninth place, but in West Ham’s second season under Zola, they spent much of it in a fight to avoid relegation.
West Ham did avoid relegation, but during that campaign, both Noble and former Hammers teammate Scott Parker did attempt to convince Zola to come out of retirement and play for West Ham, despite being aged 43 at the time and retiring a number of years previously in 2005 after playing for Cagliari in Italy.
“This is serious. We were struggling at the time and we had a lot of injuries,” Noble told Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube show FIVE. “I think me and Scotty Parker said to him, because he was so good in training, he was so fit, we said ‘you might have to sign up as a player/manager,’ because he was that good.
“Obviously he watched for a while and then he joined in one session. The ball got slapped into him and his first touch was incredible, and then he chipped Robert Green from just outside of the box. The lads were like ‘that was special.’
Where does Mark Noble rank among West Ham United's all-time greats? Have your say in the comments section.
“The further the season went on, we were struggling. We said to him ‘look, why don’t you sign up as a player, you can come on in the last 20 minutes and create something.’ He was that good, he was still as fit as anything, ripped to shreds but Gianfranco is the sort of guy that was sort of embarrassed by that.
“He was quite shy as a person, but we were serious he was that good, we were serious. Luckily enough we escaped and Scotty scored a fantastic goal to keep us up, but what a lovely man. What a top, top guy.”
West Ham did escape relegation that year after Parker scored a crucial winner against Wigan Athletic in their third-to-last game of the season. However, just weeks after avoiding the drop, Zola departed from the Londoners.
Since leaving West Ham, Zola has gone on to manage Italy’s under-16s, Watford, Cagliari, Al-Arabi and Birmingham City, with his most recent post being back at Chelsea as the assistant manager to Maurizio Sarri.
Noble is still at West Ham and in what is his final season as the club’s captain and at West Ham, with David Moyes’ side currently in the semi-finals of the Europa League and in contention to qualify for either the Europa League or the Europa Conference League next term.
Meanwhile Parker has since retired and turned to management. On Tuesday night, a 1-0 win for his Bournemouth side over Nottingham Forest secured promotion up to the Premier League, his second promotion from the Championship as a manager in the space of three years.
