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Giampiero Boniperti

Footballer and club executive (1928–2021): fifteen seasons on the pitch with Juventus, then club president from 1971 to 1990, the era of the great trophies.

Image from a publication by Sky TG24
From a publication by Sky TG24, 2021-06-18

Giampiero Boniperti (Barengo, 4 July 1928 – Turin, 18 June 2021) was a footballer and sports executive, for over half a century the face of Juventus: a forward and inside-left in black-and-white for fifteen seasons, then managing director and president from 1971 to 1990, the years in which the Turin club won everything there was to win in Italy and Europe.[1] To the fans he was «il Presidentissimo» (the ultimate president).[2]

From the Novara plain to Juventus

He was born in Barengo, a small town in the province of Novara, in eastern Piedmont. He came up through the local teams of Barengo and Momo, and in 1946 moved to Juventus.[1] His Serie A debut came on 2 March 1947, in a 1-2 home defeat to Milan; a few months later, on 9 November 1947, he also made his debut for the national team, in a 5-1 loss to Austria.[1]

Already in the 1947-48 season he was the league's top scorer with 27 goals, which were not enough for Juventus, however: the title went to their crosstown rivals of Grande Torino.[3] Born a centre-forward, he gradually dropped back to inside forward and then to half-back, an evolution common to many great attackers of his era.[1]

Black-and-white, and granata

In the post-war years, together with Carlo Parola and the Danes Hansen and Præst, he was one of the symbol players of the team that won the league titles of 1950 and 1952.[4] He also wore the granata shirt in honour of the rival team wiped out in the Superga air disaster of 4 May 1949, a gesture the city recalled at his death.[2]

In the late 1950s he supplied the assists for the attacking pair formed by the Welshman John Charles and the Italian-Argentine Omar Sivori, one of the most celebrated forward lines in Italian football: the so-called «Trio magico» (magic trio).[1][2][5] As a player he won five league titles (1949-50, 1951-52, 1957-58, 1959-60, 1960-61) and two Coppa Italia trophies; for the national team he won 38 caps and scored 8 goals.[1]

He abruptly left playing on 10 June 1961, right after his last league title.[1] The tally of his career in black-and-white varies depending on the source: according to the Treccani Enciclopedia dello Sport, 444 matches and 177 goals; according to Il Post, 182 goals.[1][5]

From the desk: two decades as president

In 1969 he returned to Juventus as managing director, alongside executive Italo Allodi, and on 13 July 1971 became its president.[1][4] The club's official history sums up that turning point this way: «Boniperti becomes president, and Juve never stops again».[4]

Under his presidency Juventus won nine league titles, two Coppa Italia trophies, the 1984-85 European Cup, an Intercontinental Cup, a Cup Winners' Cup, a UEFA Cup and a European Super Cup.[1] He built the team through targeted signings: he brought the sweeper Gaetano Scirea to Turin from Atalanta, having noticed his composure and maturity together with coach Carlo Parola[6], and in 1980 he wanted Paolo Rossi, signed despite his ban over the football betting scandal, who took the field for the Bianconeri from 1982.[7]

He is credited with the maxim that became the club's unofficial motto, reported by the press in two slightly different versions: «Winning isn't important, it's the only thing that matters»[5], or «Winning isn't important, but it's the only thing that matters»[2].

Final roles

On 5 February 1990 he stepped down as acting president, keeping the title of honorary president.[1] From 1991 to 1994 he was again managing director, until he was sidelined shortly before the arrival of the management led by Antonio Giraudo and Luciano Moggi.[5] According to the Enciclopedia dello Sport, he was elected to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.[1] In 2006, after the Calciopoli scandal, the Agnelli family brought him back and named him honorary president of the club.[5]

Death

He died in Turin on the night of 18 June 2021 of heart failure, a few weeks before turning 93; the funeral was held in private, in keeping with the withdrawn life of his final years.[2] Juventus bid him farewell writing that they were thinking «hard of him, of everything the Presidentissimo was and will forever be in the life of Juventus».[2] Mayor Chiara Appendino also recalled his bond with the crosstown rivals of Torino:[2]

«He embodied football's highest values, on and off the pitch. A pillar of Juventus and of the national team, able to wear the granata shirt in honour of Grande Torino.»

Chiara Appendino, mayor of Turin, 18 June 2021

Pages linking here

Related articles: Alessandro Del Piero, Giovanni Agnelli (1866–1945), Juventus Football Club, Pro Vercelli, Umberto Agnelli

Sources

  1. Treccani – Enciclopedia dello Sport — 1 January 2002
  2. Sky TG24 — 18 June 2021
  3. Sky TG24
  4. Juventus FC
  5. Il Post — 18 June 2021
  6. Il Post — 3 September 2019
  7. Il Post — 23 September 2016

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