Alessandro Del Piero
Alessandro Del Piero (Conegliano, 9 November 1974) is a former Italian footballer, a forward and for nineteen seasons the face of Juventus, of which he was captain from 2001 to 2012[1][2]. He holds the club's records for appearances and goals and won the 2006 World Cup with the national team[3][2]. For nearly twenty years Turin was his sporting home: here he experienced league titles, relegation to Serie B, and a farewell the press still marks every 13 May.
From Padova to Turin
Having come up through Padova's youth system, he joined Juventus in the summer of 1993: it was Giampiero Boniperti who wanted him, signing him from the Padova club for two and a half billion lire[1]. His Serie A debut came on 12 September 1993, at the Zaccaria stadium in Foggia: he came on late in place of Fabrizio Ravanelli, in a match that finished 1-1[1][3]. On 25 March 1995 he also made his debut for the national team, against Estonia[1].
The nickname that would stay with him throughout his career, "Pinturicchio," was given to him by Gianni Agnelli, who likened the young forward's finesse, especially on set pieces, to that of the Umbrian Renaissance painter[4]. Years later the Avvocato, disappointed by unmet expectations, also called him "Godot," the champion everyone waits for who never arrives; Michel Platini, on the other hand, described him as "a 9 and a half," neither a pure centre-forward nor a true number ten[5].
The Lippi years and the Udine injury
In his first months he alternated with Roberto Baggio; from 1995, with Marcello Lippi on the bench, he became a fixed starter for a team that won the 1995-96 Champions League and, in 1996, the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup[1]. The turning point for the worse came on 8 November 1998 in Udine, with a serious injury to his left knee that affected his performance for a long time[1]. From 2001 he wore the captain's armband, which he kept until his final season[2].
Serie B and the return
In the summer of 2006, after the Calciopoli scandal, Juventus were relegated to Serie B[6]. Del Piero stayed: in the 2006-07 second-tier championship he was top scorer with 20 goals and helped the club bounce straight back up[7]. In the first season after the return to Serie A, 2007-08, he also won the top-flight scoring title with 21 goals, the last Juventus player to do so for many years[7].
A few months before the relegation he had experienced the most famous night of his international career: on 4 July 2006, at the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund, in the World Cup semi-final against Germany, he scored the 2-0 in the 120th minute from an assist by Alberto Gilardino, two minutes after Fabio Grosso's goal[8]. Italy went on to win the title by beating France on penalties[8]. Sixteen years later, as Tuttosport reported, when publishing the video of that goal he commented on it with a single word: "Unforgettable"[8].
The records
With Juventus, Del Piero played 705 official matches, 153 more than the previous record held by Gaetano Scirea, and surpassed Boniperti's goal record of 179 by more than a hundred goals[3]. The total number of goals he scored for the club is given as 289 by the club's website and as 290 by Sky Tg24, which counts 188 of them in Serie A[3][7]. According to the club's count, his honours include eight Serie A titles and one Serie B title, one Coppa Italia, four Italian Super Cups, one Champions League, one European Super Cup and one Intercontinental Cup[3]; the league titles officially recognised are six[2][9], since sporting justice revoked the 2004-05 title and did not award the 2005-06 one[6].
The farewell of 13 May 2012
In the autumn of 2011 president Andrea Agnelli announced that the contract expiring the following June would be his last; Del Piero, who had signed a blank contract in order to stay one more season under Antonio Conte, did not comment for months, later only saying he was "surprised"[5][10].
On 13 May 2012, at the Juventus Stadium, against Atalanta, he scored in the 28th minute with a shot from outside the box set up by Emanuele Giaccherini, in the match that coincided with the title celebrations[10]. Conte substituted him in the 57th minute: a long lap of the pitch followed, while the forty thousand spectators sang "Un capitano, c'è solo un capitano" and held up banners reading "Parlerò di te ai miei figli"[10]. His last appearance in black and white was the Coppa Italia final lost to Napoli on 20 May[10]. The day after the celebrations he wrote to the fans[11]:
"I am happy that you smiled, cheered, cried, sang, shouted for me and with me."
In the same letter he added: "For me no colour will ever be more vivid than black and white"[11]. On 30 June, the day his contract expired, he posted his final farewell on his website: "It ends here, my contract with Juventus expires today"[12].
After Juventus
Having left Turin, he played two seasons in Australia with Sydney FC and in August 2014 signed with Delhi Dynamos for the first edition of the Indian Super League, of which he was also an ambassador; on that occasion he described himself as a traveller on football's roads[13]. After retiring, he moved to Los Angeles, where he opened a restaurant and a Juventus academy, has owned the amateur club LA 10 FC since the summer of 2018, and has worked since 2015 as a commentator for Sky Sport, ESPN and Paramount+[2]. He has published three books: Giochiamo ancora (2012), Il codice Del Piero (2015) and Detto tra noi (2017)[2].
His bond with the city has remained a ritual for the sports press: on the tenth anniversary of his farewell, on social media, he recalled "19 years of black-and-white history" lived together with the fans, writing that he still struggled to describe what that lap of the pitch had left him with[9].
Pages linking here
Related articles: Giampiero Boniperti, Juventus Football Club, Juventus Stadium
Sources
- Treccani
- Meeting di Rimini
- Juventus FC
- Goal Italia
- Famiglia Cristiana — 20 April 2012
- Sky Sport — 23 March 2015
- Sky Tg24
- Tuttosport — 4 July 2022
- Corriere dello Sport — 13 May 2022
- Il Fatto Quotidiano — 13 May 2020
- Sky Sport — 14 May 2012
- Il Post — 1 July 2012
- ABC News — 29 August 2014