 Cheslea 8 Nov 1996 CHELSEA COMPLETE SIGNING OF £4.5MILLION ZOLAChelsea chief Ruud Gullit today plunged into the Italian transfer market for a third time to sign international striker Gianfranco Zola for £4.5million from Parma. The 30-year-old Zola, who has agreed a three-and-a-half-year deal, will join compatriots Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Di Matteo and French defender Frank Leboeuf at new-look Stamford Bridge. Zola, the former Napoli striker whose spot-kick miss against Germany sent Italy tumbling out of Euro 96, is said to have been offered terms of around £25,000 a week and will arrive in London next week. As part of the agreement, Chelsea and Serie A side Parma will meet twice in friendly matches, the first on November 27 and the return in July. The transfer was finalised by Chelsea managing director Colin Hutchinson when he flew out to Italy to talk terms with the former Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup winners. Chelsea were one of four Premiership clubs - the others were Manchester United, Tottenham and Newcastle - that Parma sporting director Riccardo Sogliano wanted to speak to when he flew in to London on Wednesday. But Gullit, whose stature in Italy was raised to new pinnacles by his performances for AC Milan and Sampdoria, was always the favourite to secure the services of the craggy-faced, piano-playing Sardinian. The signing is another massive coup for Gullit, who broke the Chelsea transfer record when he paid £4.9million to bring Di Matteo from Lazio in the summer. Zola's decision to join the Serie A exodus to the Premiership comes after three months in which he has fallen out with new Parma coach Carlo Ancelotti. The 5ft 5in schemer - who names former Napoli team-mate Diego Maradona as his footballing hero - has been forced to play in a deep-lying role behind Italian international Enrico Chiesa and Argentinian Hernan Crespo and has not hid his unhappiness. Ancelotti admitted: ``It's sad to see him go, but if he has been able to get a good deal that's good for us too. We're both happy.'' The likelihood is that Zola will play alongside Vialli up front, a partnership forged only once for Italy, in a game against Cyprus in Foggia in which Roberto Baggio completed the Italian strike-force. While Vialli's feud with Italy boss Arrigo Sacchi saw him vowing never again to play for his country while Sacchi remained coach, Zola has been a firm favourite of the national coach. Even after his sending-off against Nigeria in the 1994 World Cup - a game in which Baggio rescued the Italians from ignominious defeat - Sacchi retained his faith in the predominantly left-sided player. That might have been strained when Zola's penalty miss at Old Trafford sent the Azzurri home to the traditional rotten vegetable airport welcome. But the player has remained central to Sacchi's plans, playing alongside Di Matteo and Middlesbrough's Fabrizio Ravanelli in Wednesday's shock defeat in Bosnia.
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