Nov 27 (Reuters) - Factbox on Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro, who was given the Ballon d'Or award for European Footballer of the Year by France Football magazine on Monday.

* Born September 13 1973

* Cannavaro captained Italy to their 2006 World Cup triumph and was widely regarded as one of the tournament's outstanding players with his inspirational performances at the heart of the Azzurri back four.

* He made his debut for Italy in 1997 and became a fixture in the team soon after.

* Won his 100th cap in Italy's penalty shootout over France in the World Cup final, effectively cancelling out the opposition attack with another masterful display at the back.

* He was also part of the Italy side that finished runners-up in Euro 2000 and was Italy captain when they made their disappointing exit at the group stage at Euro 2004.

* He is one of a select band of defenders to be named European Footballer of the Year, the last one being Germany's Matthias Sammer in 1996.

* He won consecutive championships with Juventus, but the club was stripped of the titles as part of the punishment for their involvement in the Italian match-fixing scandal.

* He moved to Real Madrid in July together with Juventus team mate Emerson for a combined fee of around 20 million euros ($26.27 million).

* He has been criticised by the Spanish media for failing to repeat the sort of form he showed in the World Cup since his move to Real and was given a torrid time by Norwegian striker John Carew in last Tuesday's 2-2 draw against Olympique Lyon.

* Cannavaro began his career at hometown club Napoli.

* He moved to Parma in 1995 and won the Italian Cup and UEFA Cup with the club in 1999.

* He also played for Inter Milan between 2002 and 2004.

* He was controversially shown inserting a drip into his arm on the eve of the 3-0 victory over Olympique Marseille in the 1999 UEFA Cup final. His lawyer confirmed the drip contained Neoton, a drug used in cardiac surgery to protect the heart and not on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances.