Benito Carbone

Benito "Benny" Carbone (born 14 August 1971) is an Italian football manager and retired player. He most recenty worked at Leeds United as 'Special Consultant to the Board of Directors'. He played as a forward, winger or midfielder. During his career he played professional football for 17 different clubs including Napoli, Inter and Sheffield Wednesday.

He also represented Italy U21's 8 times during his playing career.

Playing career

Club career

Early Playing Career

Carbone began his career in 1989 with Torino in his native Italy, he had spells at Reggina, Casertana and Ascoli, before a second spell at Torino. In 1994, Carbone signed for giants Napoli, under manager Vujadin Boškov; at Napoli he was given the number 10 shirt, famously worn by Diego Maradona and Gianfranco Zola, after impressing at Napoli, where he also counted Fabio Cannavaro as a teammate, he helped the club qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Internazionale

Carbone's form at Napoli earned him a move to Internazionale, where he joined fellow new recruits Roberto Carlos, Paul Ince and Javier Zanetti. Carbone was handed the number 10 shirt once again at Internazionale, where he competed for places up front with Maurizio Ganz and Marco Branca during the 1995–96 season. After the appointment of Roy Hodgson and arrival of Striker Iván Zamorano from Real Madrid, Hodgson planned to play Carbone wide on the right instead of his preferred position as second striker. Carbone who was given the ultimatum by Hodgson to play in the wide right position, decided to leave the club. Internazionale instead signed French International Youri Djorkaeff to replace Carbone.