Jonathan Zebina - TheSportsDB.com

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Name
Jonathan Zebina

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User Rating

(0 users)

Complete

60%

Born
1978 (46 years old)

Birth Place

Paris, France

Position
Centre-Back

Status

Ethnicity
White

Team Number

Height
189 cm

Weight
80 kg

Outfitter

Kit

Side

Agent

Market Value
Retired

Wage Year

Player Manager ID
400507

Player Cutout

Full Body Render

Sport

Soccer

Team
_Retired Soccer

2nd Team

League
_No League Soccer

Creative Commons Artwork
No

Description
Available in:

Jonathan Zebina (born 19 July 1978) is a French retired professional footballer. Having started his career as a striker, he played right-back for much of his career before being increasingly used as a centre-back. During his playing career, Zebina was an athletic defender, with good man-marking skills. However, Zebina, at times, was criticised throughout his career for being error-prone.

He spent his club career with several French and Italian clubs, most notably Roma – with whom he won a Serie A title and a Supercoppa Italiana in 2001 – and Juventus. At international level, Zebina obtained his only senior cap for the France national team in 2005.

In 2001, Zebina was called up to the France for the first time by manager Roger Lemerre. For the next four years, having been a regular during his time at Roma and Juventus, he remained in Jacques Santini's plans throughout his tenure.

Zebina earned only one cap for France; on 9 February 2005 in a 1–1 draw against Sweden. However, after Santini departed the national side, he was never called up for France again after falling out of favour with new coach Raymond Domenech.

His father, Denis, is an accountant, who has managed the family finances and his mother, Martine, is a nurse. Zebina has one brother and one sister. He has a diploma in accounting. Zebina said his hobby includes listening to music, watching art-house cinema, and a fan of wine. He is a fan of Aston Martin cars.

In September 2003, Zebina lost his driver's license after he was convicted of driving under the influence. In October 2005, Zebina once hosted a fashion show event that cost 200,000 euros. Since 2006, he owns a large collection of contemporary art, and owns an art gallery in Milan.

During his early career in Italy, Zebina spoke about racism in Italian football, saying: "The tension cannot justify the insults. I'm not speaking as a Romanist but as a human being, if the players start to have the same habits as the racist fans around Europe, we won't go far. In the cold I don't mean nonsense. I'm just saying that players watched from all over the world, like those of Lazio, they cannot give such an unworthy example. If one of them says certain things, he doesn't do it out of stupidity, but out of ignorance, which is worse. So what to do?" On 29 March 2010, Zebina was hit by a fan as he was about to board the team's bus ahead of Juventu's match against Atalanta. Zebina stated: "Surely it is racism. It is a bad thing for the image of Italian football that does not deserve this. The Italian Football Federation has to do something ".

In April 2010, Zebina announced his engagement to Chiara Tortorella, a daughter of magician, Cino Tortorella. In addition to speaking French, he is fluent in Italian since living in the country for two decades and also speaks Spanish and English.

During his time at Juventus, Zebina was involved in a training scuffle with teammate, Zlatan Ibrahimović. According to his autobiography, I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović, Ibrahimović said: "He (Zebina) tackled me very severely, I stood in front of him and told him that if he wanted to play hard, he had only to tell me. He hit me with a ball. I didn't have time to think it over, I hit him instantly and he hit the mat just as dry…", a claim that player denied, suggesting it was a ploy to sell more copies. The feud was reignited when Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse face against each other on 5 October 2013 and after scoring a goal, Ibrahimović mimic pointing a gun in the direction of Zebina at the substitute bench.

In September 2017, Zebina was convicted of tax evasion, due to not declaring his income between 2011 and 2013. He was given a two–year suspended sentence and fined 10,000 euros.