# 1996–97 Parma AC season

The 1996–97 season was Parma Associazione Calcio's seventh consecutive season in Serie A. The team competed in Serie A, the Coppa Italia, and the UEFA Cup, where it suffered a shock first round exit to Portuguese club Vitória de Guimarães.

## Season review

Parma came the closest it had ever been to winning the Italian championship, but came up short by finishing only two points behind Juventus. The season started with Luca Bucci still as Parma's starting keeper. Young goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, along with new recruits Lilian Thuram, Enrico Chiesa and Hernán Crespo, proved to be the driving force in Parma's title bid, which nearly reached ultimate success. However, a dubious penalty for Juventus in a 1–1 draw against the Turin club in May sealed Juventus' title.

## Players

    Squad at end of season
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 2 | DF | ITA | Luigi Apolloni |
| 3 | DF | ITA | Antonio Benarrivo |
| 6 | MF | FRA | Daniel Bravo |
| 7 | DF | ARG | Roberto Sensini |
| 8 | MF | ITA | Dino Baggio |
| 9 | MF | ITA | Massimo Crippa |
| 11 | FW | ARG | Hernán Crespo |
| 12 | GK | ITA | Gianluigi Buffon |
| 14 | DF | ITA | Roberto Mussi |
| 16 | FW | ITA | Gianluca Triuzzi |
| 17 | DF | ITA | Fabio Cannavaro |
| 18 | MF | ITA | Pietro Strada |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 19 | FW | ITA | Alessandro Melli |
| 20 | FW | ITA | Enrico Chiesa |
| 21 | DF | FRA | Lilian Thuram |
| 22 | DF | BRA | Zé Maria |
| 23 | GK | ITA | Alessandro Nista |
| 24 | DF | ITA | Luca Pinton |
| 25 | MF | ITA | Simone Barone |
| 26 | MF | CRO | Mario Stanić |
| 27 | DF | ITA | Sebastiano Sapienza |
| 29 | FW | ITA | Fabrizio Miccoli |
| 31 | MF | FRA | Reynald Pedros |
| 33 | FW | SWE | Tomas Brolin (on loan from Leeds United) |

### Transfers

In :
| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| DF | Lilian Thuram | AS Monaco | - |
| FW | Enrico Chiesa | Sampdoria | - |
| FW | Hernan Crespo | CA River Plate | |
| MF | Pietro Strada | AC Reggiana | |
| MF | Amaral | Palmeiras | - |
| DF | Zé Maria | Flamengo | - |
| MF | Daniel Bravo | Paris Saint_Germain | - |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| FW | Hristo Stoichkov | FC Barcelona | |
| FW | Filippo Inzaghi | Atalanta BC | - |
| DF | Fernando Couto | FC Barcelona | - |
| MF | Alberto Di Chiara | Perugia Calcio | - |
| MF | Gabriele Pin | Piacenza Calcio | - |
| FW | Faustino Asprilla | Newcastle United | - |
| DF | Lorenzo Minotti | Cagliari Calcio | - |
| DF | Marcello Castellini | Perugia Calcio | - |

#### Winter

In :
| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| MF | Reynald Pedros | Olympique Marseille | - |
| MF | Mario Stanic | Club Brugge | |
| MF | Tomas Brolin | Leeds United | loan |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| FW | Gianfranco Zola | Chelsea | |
| GK | Luca Bucci | Perugia | |
| MF | Amaral | Benfica | loan |
| MF | Massimo Brambilla | Bologna | |

## Competitions
### Serie A
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Juventus (C) | 34 | 17 | 14 | 3 | 51 | 24 | +27 | 65 | Qualified to Champions League group stage |
| 2 | Parma | 34 | 18 | 9 | 7 | 41 | 26 | +15 | 63 | Qualified to Champions League qualifying round |
| 3 | Internazionale | 34 | 15 | 14 | 5 | 51 | 35 | +16 | 59 | Qualification to UEFA Cup |
| 4 | Lazio | 34 | 15 | 10 | 9 | 54 | 37 | +17 | 55 | Qualification to UEFA Cup |
| 5 | Udinese | 34 | 15 | 9 | 10 | 53 | 41 | +12 | 54 | Qualification to UEFA Cup |

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Last updated: 1 June 1997. Source: Competitive matches

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 |
| Ground | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A |
| Result | W | D | W | L | W | L | L | D | D | D | L | D | D | W | W | W | W | L | W | D | W | W | W | W | L | W | W | L | W | W | D | D | W | W |
| Position | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |

#### Matches
### UEFA Cup
#### First round
## Statistics
### Players statistics

| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | Serie A | Serie A | Coppa | Coppa | UEFA | UEFA |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| 12 | GK | ITA | Buffon | 28 | -19 | 27 | -17 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -2 |
| 22 | DF | BRA | Zé Maria | 25 | 1 | 21+4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | DF | FRA | Thuram | 37 | 1 | 34 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 17 | DF | ITA | Cannavaro | 30 | 0 | 25+2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | ITA | Benarrivo | 24 | 1 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | MF | ITA | Crippa | 31 | 1 | 25+3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 8 | MF | ITA | Baggio | 34 | 2 | 31 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 7 | MF | ARG | Sensini | 33 | 1 | 30+1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 18 | MF | ITA | Strada | 27 | 1 | 20+7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | FW | ITA | Chiesa | 31 | 16 | 29 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 11 | FW | ARG | Crespo | 28 | 12 | 24+3 | 12 | 1 | 0 |
| 1 | GK | ITA | Bucci | 9 | -13 | 7 | -9 | 1 | -3 | 1 | -1 |
| 14 | DF | ITA | Mussi | 31 | 0 | 21+7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 6 | MF | FRA | Bravo | 27 | 0 | 17+7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 26 | MF | CRO | Stanic | 13 | 3 | 13 | 3 |
| | FW | ITA | Zola | 11 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 19 | FW | ITA | Melli | 21 | 1 | 5+13 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| | MF | ITA | Brambilla | 10 | 0 | 5+4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | DF | ITA | Apolloni | 8 | 1 | 5+3 | -1 |
| 32 | FW | SWE | Brolin | 11 | 0 | 3+8 | 0 |
| 31 | MF | FRA | Pedros | 4 | 0 | 2+2 | 0 |
| | MF | BRA | Amaral | 6 | 0 | 0+4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 16 | FW | ITA | Triuzzi | 2 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 |
| 25 | MF | ITA | Barone | 2 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 |
| 24 | DF | ITA | Luca Pinton | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 23 | GK | ITA | Nista | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | DF | ITA | Sapienza |
| 29 | FW | ITA | Miccoli |
* Source: http://calcio-seriea.net/allenatori_squadra/1996/1114/