Ferrara spent his playing career as a defender, initially at Napoli and later on at Juventus, winning seven total Serie A titles as well as other domestic and international trophies.

The following season, Ferrara became a part of the starting XI, and he soon began earning call-ups to the Italy national team, making the squad for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

In addition to the UEFA Cup, with Napoli he won two Serie A titles (in 1986–87 and 1989–90), the 1987 Coppa Italia final, and the 1990 Supercoppa Italiana, the latter over his future team, Juventus.

Juventus had what was considered as the best defence in the world at this time, and teams strongly regretted ever going down a goal to the club, as they knew how hard it would be to score one back for themselves.

While Montero returned to Uruguay and Iuliano opted to join smaller clubs to conclude his career, Ferrara retired from football altogether in May 2005 at age 38.

[3][5] An elegant yet powerful and aggressive defender, Ferrara was known throughout his career for his composure, anticipation, technical skills, ball-playing ability, versatility, and class, which enabled him to play anywhere along the back-line, both in the centre, as a man-marker ("stopper"), or as a full-back, usually on the right flank, and allowed him to adapt to various formations and systems.

After winning the World Cup, he became part of Juventus' staff, joining former club and national teammate Gianluca Pessotto, with Ferrara being named youth system chief (responsabile settore giovanile), dealing mostly with organisational aspects of the Juve academy.

In his two games as caretaker manager, he led Juventus to 3–0 and 2–0 wins over Siena and Lazio respectively, thus ensuring a second-place finish over rivals Milan.

Despite a win over Derby d'Italia rivals Internazionale, Juve embarked on a losing streak over the winter, notably against minor teams such as Sicilian side Catania and recently promoted Bari.

[22] Six days later, Juventus were knocked out of the Coppa Italia by Inter 2–1 at the San Siro, leading the board of directors to ultimately sack Ferrara after weeks of speculation regarding his position, replacing him with Alberto Zaccheroni until the end of the season.