Alessandro Del Piero

Del Piero. Oh, where to start. Captain of Juventus. Star goal maker. Famous for his dead-on punizioni and rigori (penalty) shots. Admired not only for his skill, but also for his quality as a human being.



A special shot is even called "tiro alla Del Piero". A kick that Del Piero made famous by giving the soaring ball a spin so that it curves mid-air to find it's way back into the goal. Demonstration here.

AmoreMio nearly started crying just seeing it again. "It just makes me so emotional" he explained, blinking back tears. This may sound like teasing, but I kind of felt it too. And I haven't even been following Del Piero my whole life. Indeed many Juve fans are only Juve fans because of Del Piero. If he had switched teams, they would have too.

AmoreMio insisted I include this clip of some Del Piero's greatest goals. While he watched he regaled me with details of all the ones he had seen on TV with his Dad, "This is the game that he played the day after his father died, and this is the one against Florence... see the ball didn't even touch the ground between kicks! And this one he kicks in just with his heels. Then, at the end of this game in Madrid everyone in the stadium, even the Madrid fans, gave him a standing ovation!"

However, after nearly 20 years on the team, Del Piero has now left Juventus. Though he is willing to continue playing, his contract will not be renewed... a fact which annoys AmoreMio to no end. "He signed a blank contract for them!" He shouts with exasperation, "He was practically offering to play for free!"

Though Del Piero's last match with Juventus was technically the May 22nd Championship, his farewell salute was recognized during the Classification match on May 13th. For many the Classification is more important than the Championship, so that match was considered the beginning of the end. As you can see here when Del Piero was pulled from the field, despite being in the middle of play, the entire game was stopped so that he could give one last wave to the crowd and say goodbye to all the players.

Though I'm not particularly passionate about football, I still find myself tearing up watching it again... so you can understand why some of the men in the above link have tears streaming down their cheeks as they give Del Piero a standing ovation. When I watched it on TV they even showed some men who were openly sobbing as he left the field.

For many, included AmoreMio and myself, Juventus seems to have lost some of it's meaning now...