James Lawton: Chance for players to pay tribute to wonder of Zola

Henry makes strong case to win PFA's award but a vote for Chelsea's veteran Italian would say most about what is important in the game

The report that bookmakers were no longer taking bets on Thierry Henry winning the Professional Footballers' Association's Player of the Year award should encourage consideration of another and, at least in my opinion, rather more suitable candidate.

Gianfranco Zola gets the nod here for reasons that, necessarily, run beyond the undoubted brilliance of Henry's wonderfully liquid technique.

That the 36-year-old Zola is also still capable of exquisite accomplishment is clear enough, of course, and we had a beautiful reminder on Sunday when he broke the hearts of gallant West Bromwich with moments of artistry that even the sublime Henry would have been hard pushed to better.

But no, game for game, goal for luminous goal, the weight of Henry's case is hugely impressive. Feed in his speed, his youth, his currently unique capacity to combine a turn of heel with a surge of genius, and the battle with the ageing Italian is somewhat loaded in the Frenchman's favour. So let's widen the argument. Let's ask which vote by the pros of English football would send out the most inspiring message, which one would say most about the players' sense of what is important in the game and which individual player's body of work this season says most for his professional character and best represents the image of a game which in the last few days has been so disfigured?

When we set up the ballot paper this way, at this time, quite a lot changes, and not least by the soaring commendation of Sir Alex Ferguson, who reflected over a glass of wine the other day, "I just love the wee man. Even some of the greatest players cheat, but he never does. Aye, I love him."

We see Zola not just as a marvellous example of consistent professional standards but also a brilliant example of decency. His competitive spirit looks more than ever a rallying point against the dismal tide of cheating and irresponsibility which is now so commonplace.

Consider Zola's unchanging demeanour for a moment – and then set it against some of the incidents which brought such disgrace to football in the last few days. Could anyone even remotely imagine Zola stooping to the level of Martin Keown's cheap exploitation of Francesco Totti's ill-considered lunge at Highbury the other night? Or El Hadji Diouf's spitting at spectators at Parkhead?

A vote for Zola would announce that many players do indeed care about the way the world sees them – and certainly it would not go down badly with the union leadership.

The Professional Footballers' Association chief Gordon Taylor's opposition to the wholesale importing of foreign players is plentifully on the record, but he acknowledges that in some cases the arrival of stars from abroad has signalled a distinct extension of the horizons of the domestic game. Henry's thrilling talent is one prime example. Zola's thrilling nature, coupled with tremendous, unselfish vision and skill, is another. Says Taylor: "Zola is an example to every professional in the game... he is what every young player should strive for, both in his game and in his behaviour. You look at him and you are reminded they don't make diamonds as big as bricks."

The wonder of the little man from Sardinia is that so long after his time as a major player in the Italian game has passed, he remains as motivated as when he stepped on to the field against England in a vital World Cup qualifier at Wembley six years ago. Remember the brilliance of his intervention in that game, when Glenn Hoddle gambled on the vagaries of Matt Le Tissier's game and Italy banked on a man like Zola, who scored the only goal of the game with a perfectly razored finish?

Later that year, when the younger Paul Gascoigne played one of his last passably effective games for England, Zola finished a training session at the Olympic stadium in Rome and talked gently about the pressure mounting on the Italian team before the return game.

Said Zola: "There is great pressure on the nations of Italy and England now waiting for the result. We know how much everybody cares. You are an idiot if you do not know this, but on me today, no, there is no pressure. I do not play today – that is tomorrow's work, and when it comes we will have to do it to the best of our ability. We will have to behave like men.

"We know how important it is for the Italian people and for us as individual players, but we are adult and we also know that in the end it is another football game. We lose, yes it is very bad, and we will be unpopular for a while – but it will not be the end of the world. No, it won't be that. Football can never be that because if you think of it in those terms, it is so much harder to keep control of yourself."

What football is, Zola says every time he goes on the field, is something that you do with every fibre you have for as long as you can; it is something you quit only when you can no longer do it properly. Recently Zola performed a small miracle of application at Shrewsbury, where a few weeks earlier the young sensation Wayne Rooney had been virtually anonymous as his high-flying Everton were bundled out of the FA Cup. Zola squashed all chance of such possibility with a diadem of a performance. Later, the Chelsea manager, Claudio Ranieri, lingered in the freezing night and raved about his virtuoso. "Zola is just fantastic. He is always the same. He lives to give his best. It could have been difficult here tonight, and I told the players that we have to think of this as a big Premiership game because if we don't we could be in trouble. Only I didn't have to tell Zola. Every match is like that for him."

It may just need to be said that the PFA voting should really be the story of an Italian, a Frenchman and an Englishman, though enthusiasm for the undoubted claims of Alan Shearer was not enhanced by the rash of publicity which accompanied his apparent yearnings for a return to the international scene. The first cynical reaction was that Shearer had decided to augment his stirring performance in the Champions' League action at San Siro with a little media priming that would surely have earned a nod of approval from the Beckham publicity machine.

On closer examination, it turned out that Shearer had provided at least one almost identical interview earlier in the season. He accomplished it without the need to grab another fistful of headlines with the statement that, after much agonising, he had decided not to submit his name for the already wide-ranging consideration of Sven Goran Eriksson.

Whatever the genesis of the brouhaha, some saw the hand of a superb professional who has never been at a loss to find ways of shaping media reaction to his own particular needs. Two reactions seemed most sound: one was that he was right to reject the idea of returning to the international fold, whatever the reason for the flotation of the idea; two, his brilliant reinstatement of his reputation since he decided to concentrate solely on club football was not in need of a barrel-load of cheap publicity.

Shearer of course is an extremely viable option for his fellow pros. They have voted him their top man before and for reasons no more compelling than his magnificent contribution to the extraordinary success of Newcastle United under Sir Bobby Robson. Shearer has lasted the course as an ultimate stayer. The case for Henry is equally strong, though perhaps not as compelling as the bookmakers were claiming last week. An artist, a frequent scorer of beautiful goals, no doubt, but a fierce work of the human spirit? Not always.

It is in that last area where Zola scores so heavily. At 36 he remains a joy of football and of life.