Born in Naples, Fabio Cannavaro has played for his hometown club S.S.C. Napoli (1992-95), Parma F.C. (1995-2002), F.C. Internazionale Milano (2002-04) and Juventus FC (2004-2006) during his career in Serie A, before moving to Real Madrid in the Spanish Primera Divisiòn.

Cannavaro's talent was quickly spotted by scouts from local club Napoli, who were enjoying the most successful period of their history. The team which included Diego Maradona and Ciro Ferrara had just won the Scudetto.

Cannavaro started out as a ball boy at the Stadio San Paolo and his progress was such that he became a member of the first team alongside some of his childhood idols. Cannavaro's Serie A debut came on 7 March 1993, at Turin’s Stadio Delle Alpi against Juventus. Unfortunately, post-Maradona Napoli were in desperate need of funds and were soon forced to sell Cannavaro to Parma F.C..

At Parma, Cannavaro initially began to win plaudits from a wider audience and establish himself as an extremely talented defender. Together with his defensive partner Lilian Thuram and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Gialloblù became renowned as the team with one of the best defences in Serie A.

Under the guidance of coach Carlo Ancelotti, they helped the club to its best ever league finish in 1997, finishing second, a point behind the champions Juventus. In 1998-99, Parma won the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia amongst other trophies. In the summer of 2002, Cannavaro joined Internazionale for a fee of €32 million.

After a two year stint at the Nerazzurri, he signed for Juventus. Here he re-joined his ex-Parma partners Lilian Thuram and Gigi Buffon, to reform one of the most successful defensive line-ups in Serie A, and enabling Cannavaro to win his first scudetto with Juventus in 2005 and a second the following season in 2006.

Cannavaro won l'Oscar del Calcio 2005, the Football Oscar, for his exceptional debut season at the Turin giants. After the 2006 World Cup, the Calciopoli trial verdicts relegated Juventus FC to Serie B and stripped the club of its 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 Scudetti. Cannavaro, mindful of his age and the imminent prospect of two years of the club not being able to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, decided to leave La Vecchia Signora. Cannavaro said that "Even if I know this may be hard to believe, I would have stayed at Juventus had they remained in Serie A – even with a 30-point deduction.

He accompanied one of his team mates, Emerson and in doing so re-joined his former Juve coach Fabio Capello at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, the home of Real Madrid. Although no fee was confirmed by either club, press speculation has often set the combined transfer's worth at roughly 20 million euros.

On July 25, Fabio Cannavaro officially became a Real Madrid player, with a three year contract and the number 5 jersey, which previously belonged to Manuel Sanchís and Zinedine Zidane. He scored his first goal for the club on August 18, 2006 in a friendly match against Real Betis. On his 33rd birthday, Real Madrid played against Olympique Lyonnais in the Champion League losing 2-0.

On December 20, 2006, shortly after being awarded the Fifa World Player of the Year award, Cannavaro was badly at fault for the opneing goal and produced a poor performance as Real Madrid suffered an embarrassing 3-0 home defeat to Recreativo Huelva.