England

Milan via Chelsea to Spurs: Carlo Cudicini

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Kristian Sturt

Few goalkeepers become heroes. Most feel that they are under scrutiny at multiple points, many find it hard to establish themselves in a team and only a small amount become fan favourites. A keeper that describes most of the points above however is Carlo Cudicini.

Cudicini was born on 6th September 1973 in Milan, Italy. The son of former Milan goalkeeper Fabio Cudicini, the Italian stands at a reasonable six feet one inch and currently plays for Tottenham Hotspur.

Cudicini signed for his first major club, AC Milan, after making a string of appearances for the Italian U18 side, earning 20 caps. However, unlike his much loved father he could not find a way into the starting line-up, often ending up on the bench or in the reserves. In fact, over the four seasons he was at AC Milan the young player did not make a single league appearance and only managed to start in two games in the early stages of the Champions League.

Finding it hard to establish a place in the Milan team, Cudicini was loaned to Como for one season, making six appearances. The Rossoneri found the youngster surplus to requirements and after returning from his mildly successful loan spell with Como the keeper again found himself on his travels to Prato.

Cudicini found it easier to break into a lower league team and in his first season started 30 games in a very successful season. But once again the Milanese found himself linked with a move back to Serie A and got his chance at Lazio.

Surrounding this transfer came a lot of hype and expectations. Unfortunately for Cudicini this is not where his breakthrough would come as he picked up a wrist injury early on and only ever made one appearance. Lazio then decided to part ways with the goalkeeper and he was sold to lower league Castel di Sangro who at the time featured in Serie B and Serie C1.

Persistent injuries made it hard for Cudicini to ever get regular football even in the lower leagues of Italy. Over the three seasons he was with Castel the young Italian only made 14 appearances and due to this Castel sold him to Chelsea. When the chance of a move to England came Cudicini and Castel both jumped at the chance.

The Italian keeper moved to Chelsea initially on loan for the 1999/00 season and Chelsea decided to make his move a permanent one, despite him only ever making one senior appearance. But with Ed de Geoy and Mark Bosnich not exactly spring chickens, Chelsea needed someone they thought would be happy to be an understudy, and they completed the deal with a small £160,000 fee.

At the start of the 2000/01 season Cudicini, de Goey and Bosnich were battling for the number one spot. Cudicini was elected and duly responded with a string of magnificent performances cementing himself in the Chelsea team in his first full season at the Bridge.

In September 2002, Mark Bosnich was sacked and faced a nine month ban from football for a failed drug test, the longest ban in the history of English football to date, and in his absence Cudicini found himself as the stand-out first choice goalkeeper for the Blues.

The Milanese was an instant hit with Blues’ fans and was voted Chelsea’s fans player of the season 2001/02. Most notably for his performance against Liverpool in which he made a string of saves that would make any goalkeeper proud, Chelsea would win the game 4-0, and would eventually find themselves finishing ahead of Liverpool in fourth place to qualify for the Champions League.

The next season also saw success for the Blues’ keeper as Cudicini was also recognised as the most valuable goalkeeper in the 2002/03 season, when he won the Premiership Goalkeeper of the Season Award.

However, continued injury problems which had begun at Lazio left him unable to play for much of the 2003/04 season, a spell in which temporary replacement Marco Ambrosio failed to make any sort of impact in the Premiership and Champions League.

Things were not to get much better for the Italian. In fact the 2003/04 season might have been a start of things to come: Claudio Ranieri previously signed Petr Cech from Rennes before being let go by the Blues, and when Jose Mourinho entered the frame at Chelsea he now had a selection headache in goal.

Some thought Cudicini would remain number one, others thought that he would have a battle on his hands, but next to no one would have guessed that Cech would dismantle Cudicini at the helm of the Chelsea backline. The Italian subsequently became backup to Cech quicker than anyone expected, and many people are surprised to hear that because Cudicini did not play more than the required amount of games for Chelsea, he did not receive a Premiership winners’ medal, which is highly unfortunate due to his unbelievable form in previous seasons.

As Petr Cech went from strength to strength at Chelsea, Cudicini became centre of press speculation linking him with a move away from Stamford Bridge. The custodian was linked to a moves to clubs in England, Spain and Italy, however he categorically denied that he wanted to leave stating that he wanted to ‘repay’ the fans and help them on their way to their first Champions League medal. He showed this by signing a new deal keeping him at the club until the summer of 2009/10.

So Petr Cech, Carlo Cudicini and the newly recruited third choice Hillaro (who Mourinho signed from Porto) were on the goalkeeping staff at Chelsea at the beginning of what would turn out to be a somewhat strange and memorable season, mostly for the wrong reasons.

On 14th October 2006, in a league game against Reading, Petr Cech suffered a horrific head injury very early on in the match causing him to be subbed after a 10 minute recovery process. Cudicini would not have liked to get his chance this way but he duly stepped up.

As the keeper entered the fray, he would not be swapping shirts at the end of the match. As Reading had a corner knocked in, the Italian made a brave attempt to punch the ball, but Sonko of Reading clattered Cudicini and left him unconscious. Cudicini was carried off wearing a neck brace and an oxygen mask.

This left Chelsea without a goalkeeper for the remaining part of the match and with a goalkeeping injury crisis. Cech was rumoured to be sidelined for up to a year. As unfortunate as it was, Cudicini must have resented the fact that he got injured in the same game.

Hillario had to step in and he had some big boots to fill. Rhys Evans (Chelsea’s youth goalkeeper) became second choice. The Blues had to field a seemingly weak goalkeeping line-up. However, Hillario did not disappoint: He put on a string of excellent performances and staked his claim to the number one spot.

Unfortunately this was more bad news for Cudicini, as even though he had now fully recovered from his injury he could not get back in the side. But the goalkeeper knew he would get his chance and he did. Hillario had one or two weaker performances and Mourinho knew that he had a more than capable backup.

The Italian came back. How long for though? Cudicini and Hillaro knew that they had to keep one eye on the clock because as soon as Cech became match fit he would more than likely move everyone one step down the pecking order, unless Cudicini could perform at his best. Cech returned much earlier than expected and as soon as he was declared ready he jumped straight back in the Chelsea team for a crucial match against Liverpool.

According to his agent the talented goalkeeper was offered multiple chances to move around this time. Cudicini however did not want to move due to his love for the club and fans, and this caused him to be rated as the most unambitious footballer by the Daily Telegraph, seemingly due to his natural talent.

In Cudicini’s penultimate season for Chelsea he featured 19 times due to the now injury prone Petr Cech. This season some say he preformed at his best level since his height of joining the Blues.

Even so this still did not dislodge Petr Cech from a starting spot, and in the 2008/09 season, Cudicini made but a few appearances. One of them (against Middlesbrough) would be his 100th clean sheet in the number 23 shirt for Chelsea. His last game would be a 1-1 draw against Southend United before moving to Tottenham Hotspur in a surprise transfer.

Cudicini signed for Spurs on the 26th January 2009 on a free transfer, a favour the Blues granted him due to his outstanding service to the club. He immediately broke into the side on the 27th of the same month in a 3-1 win over Stoke, making some fantastic saves. However since then, Heurelho Gomes has come back into the team and kept Cudicini out.

Internationally the Italian was capped at U18 and U21 level and has never played competitively for the national team, which in turn led to speculation about him playing for the England side due to residency gained after being in the country for five years. Despite this though Cudicini has never wanted to play for England and laughed off the idea in multiple interviews.

Carlo Cudicini has had a hectic career to say the least: He started out as the son of a great for AC Milan, who did not live up to expectations, only too move to the lower leagues of Italy. A string of performances saw him signed by Lazio and then surprisingly by Chelsea where he shone for years, only to be knocked off his perch by arguably the best keeper on the planet at that particular time. Now at Spurs he finds himself the number two again.

Cudicini will always be remembered at Stamford Bridge as a great, but he may feel that his career could have gone in a different direction if he had made different decisions at crucial times.