They were both the players of Atalanta when the Italian coach, Giovanni Trapattoni has called up the Zenoni brothers to the national squad on 23^rd February 2001, for a friendly match against Argentina (28/02/2001) in the Olympic Stadium, Rome.

"We’ve heard about the news but I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been always dreaming it since I was a kid. I’d like to have the chance to show what Vavassori taught us." – said Cristian.

To be honest, the world heard his name first by that occasion.

Cristian has still no big experience in the professional soccer world, neither in the International Cups.

He stared his soccer career in 1994, but the first season which counts really in his life was at the C1 league at Pistoiese in 1996/97. The Atalanta where he played after it is a good school and he had a very good relationship with the coach, Vavassori. He believed in the young defender, and Cristian repaid the confidence and played well during 3 seasons. The last championship in Serie A (he played for the Italian Cup in the colours of the Bergamo team) was very important for his knowledge and skills.

By the way skills, he’s very strong and dynamic on the right side as well as in mid-field.

No wonder that the big clubs were interested about him.

After the 2000/01 season in Italy everyone was talking about the "calciomercato" and surely the greatest news of this year was that the Juve sold Pippo Inzaghi and Zidane, but bought some other stars like Thuram, Nedved or Buffon. And a surprise between the big names there’s also Cristian Zenoni, who’ll wear the no.14 jersey in the 2001/02 season at the Vecchia Signora.

We can be sure that this young, 24-year-old defender will be a great star, playing next to Antonio Conte and Alex Del Piero.