Former Chelsea And Italy Striker Gianfranco Zola Part Of Ryder Cup Team Europe

Soccer players are no strangers to team photos, and normally the star strikers take up a fairly central position.

This week, though, former Italy and Chelsea forward Gianfranco Zola had to make do with a spot right on the far end of the front row.

This was, however, a full player and support team photograph for Team Europe - and Zola, a low single figure golfer though he is, is not a professional about to tee it up in the Ryder Cup.

Even so, the 59-year-old, who bagged 59 Premier League goals for the London club, does have an important job at Bethpage.

As reported by Jamie Kennedy of Golf Digest, Zola is with Team Europe as vice captain Francesco Molinari's designated buggy driver.

It's a good pairing, for the former Open champion will need a reliable driver who speaks the same language in order to dart quickly between the matches in order to keep captain Luke Donald up to speed.

Molinari is actually a West Ham United fan, who he started following when he moved to England in 2009. His friend Zola was manager at the club until May 2010.

Despite his legendary status in the world of soccer, you can expect to see golf nut Zola with that wide grin of his all week, for this is the kind of front row experience that very few people are afforded.

Zola, who was taken under the wing of Argentina legend Diego Maradona at Napoli at the age of 23, rarely misses an opportunity to tee it up with the stars of the golf world.

In July, he joined a number of other Premier League icons and a list of VIPs to take part in the grand opening of the new course at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire.

And in March, he was part of the Team World side captained by Sergio Garcia at Reignwood Icons of Football Golf Tournament, a star-studded event in Bangkok.

Zola, who scored ten goals for his country, has also played in a number of pro-ams on the DP World Tour, so he won't exactly be a stranger in the European team room.

The Italian joined Chelsea in November 1996, linking up with fellow countrymen Gianluca Vialli and Roberto di Matteo, and it wasn't long before the creative genius became a fan favorite in West London.

This week, no heroics are expected from the man known as 'Magic Box' - just plenty of safe drives.