Gianfranco Zola: Why is the former Chelsea player driving a buggy at the Ryder Cup?

Gianfranco Zola: Why is the former Chelsea player driving a buggy at the Ryder Cup?. There was a surprise famous face featured on Team Europe’s official 2025 Ryder Cup photograph at the Bethpage Black course this week.

The former Italy and Chelsea striker Gianfranco Zola squeezed onto the end of the line-up as visitors Europe stepped up their preparations for the event, which starts on Friday a few miles east of New York City.

Zola, a keen single-figure-handicap golfer having retired from football, has landed an unusual role as the official buggy driver for Europe’s vice-captain Francesco Molinari, a fellow Italian. The 59-year-old will be on the course during the three days of the tournament to offer support as the Europeans attempt to win the Ryder Cup on American soil for the first time in 13 years.

Zola is a Premier League icon from his time at Chelsea, where he spent seven years between 1996 and 2003, helping the west London club win two FA Cups, a League Cup and the now-defunct UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.

The diminutive 5ft 6in (168cm) forward was one of the most glamorous of the league’s early foreign imports following its launch in 1992, having made his name in Italy’s Serie A at clubs including Napoli and Parma, as well as with his homeland’s national team.

He was part of the Italy squad who lost the 1994 World Cup final to Brazil in a penalty shootout and made 35 appearances at international level from 1991-97. Zola finished his playing career back on his home island of Sardinia with Cagliari from 2003-05 before retiring and becoming a manager.

In England, he managed West Ham United, Watford and Birmingham City, as well as brief spells back at Cagliari and Qatar’s Al Arabi, but has been out of football since leaving his role as Chelsea assistant manager after a year in summer 2019.

Zola’s designated task is to drive the buggy for Molinari, who himself made history in 2018 when he won The Open to become golf’s first Italian major champion, around the course on Long Island, New York state.

Molinari, 42, has been a member of three Ryder Cup-winning teams as a player and is one of five vice-captains selected for this event by current skipper Luke Donald, a list that also includes his elder brother Edoardo. Francesco also held a vice-captain’s role at the previous Ryder Cup in 2023, when Europe defeated the Americans 16½ 11½ near Rome. It was the first time the event has been played in Italy.

Over the years, Ryder Cup vice-captains — usually veteran pro golfers who act as mentors to the younger players on the current roster and keep the captain up-to-date with on-course developments across its three days of often dramatic action — have been mocked as glorified buggy drivers themselves, so the fact they now have drivers to do that for them is another quirk of the modern tournament.

As no more than a keen amateur golfer, Zola will simply be there to drive his compatriot around the 18 holes at Bethpage, although it would be no surprise if some of the football fans on the Team Europe squad seek him out during the week for advice.

Purely through his connection and friendship with Molinari.

The pair got to know each other in 2009, when Molinari moved to London and Zola was managing West Ham, who play their home games in the east of the UK capital. “Zola is a really nice guy, so I got attached to West Ham when he was managing there,” said Molinari in a 2010 interview.

Though Molinari has since relocated to the U.S. state of California, the two have remained close. “He is a good friend of mine and there was no other choice,” Molinari said. “He has moved on but I have stuck with the Hammers.”

The pair have previously reunited at Ryder Cups in an informal capacity, but this week Zola takes on a more involved role, inside the ropes separating the teams from fans and media, alongside Molinari.

He’s played to a single-figure standard since retirement and is a regular at Pro-Am tournaments and charity days. He played in last year’s Icons of Football golf series in a Team World vs Team England event in Bangkok, Thailand.

No, a number of figures from the game have cheered on the golfers in previous years and some have even been granted access to the team room.

In 2014, Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary former Manchester United manager, gave a pep talk to Team Europe’s players ahead of the match at Gleneagles in his native Scotland. “For me, being a Manchester United fan, it was the highlight of the week so far,” said Rory McIlroy, a member of the European team then and now, at the time.

Two years ago in Rome, Welsh hero Gareth Bale and Ukraine great Andriy Shevchenko — both low-handicappers — played in the curtain-raiser to the main event, a celebrity all-star match, and interacted with the players.

Several Ryder Cup golfers have formed friendships with footballers, most notably Tyrrell Hatton, who makes his fourth straight Ryder Cup appearance this year, and former Liverpool and Manchester City player James Milner, with the two Englishmen being mutual supporters of each other’s sporting careers.