Full name | Alessandro Del Piero | ||
---|---|---|---|
Date of birth | 9 November 1974 | ||
Place of birth | Conegliano, Veneto, Italy | ||
Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[1] | ||
Playing position | Second Striker |
Alessandro Del Piero (Italian pronunciation: [alesˈsandro del ˈpjɛːro]) Ufficiale OMRI[2][3] (born November 9, 1974 in Conegliano, Veneto) is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who plays for Serie A club Juventus. Del Piero was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations.[4] Del Piero was also voted in the list of best European players for the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll. In the year 2000, Del Piero was the world's best-paid football player from salary, bonuses and advertising revenue.[5]
Along with three awards in Italy for gentlemanly conduct[6][7] he has also won the Golden Foot award, which pertains to personality and playing ability.[8]
Del Piero usually plays as a supporting-striker and occasionally between the midfield and the strikers, known in Italy as the "trequartista" position. Although he is not very tall, Del Piero's playing style is regarded by critics as creative in attacking, assisting many goals as well as scoring himself, as opposed to just "goal poaching."[9] His free-kick and penalty taking is also highly regarded.[10] Del Piero has become famous over the years for scoring from a special "Del Piero Zone"("Gol alla Del Piero"), approaching from the left flank and curling a precise lob into the far top corner of the goal.[11]
Del Piero holds the all-time goalscoring record at Juventus.[12] On April 6, 2008, Alessandro Del Piero became the all-time highest-capped Juventus player, ahead of Juve legend Gaetano Scirea. As of May 2010, he is in eighth place in the UEFA Champions League all-time goalscorer records[13] and joint fourth with Roberto Baggio within the Italian national team records
Childhood and early career
Del Piero is the son of Gino, an electrician, and Bruna, a housekeeper. He regularly played football in the backyard with two friends, Nelso and Pierpaolo as a child. All three dreamed of becoming footballers, but only Del Piero would eventually manage to do so.[15] Alessandro's older brother, Stefano, briefly played professional football for Sampdoria before injury struck him. The family lived in the hamlet of Saccon - a rural home in San Vendemiano. While growing up Del Piero's family did not have much money for travelling abroad, so he was considering being a lorry driver in order to see the world.[16]While playing for the local youth team of San Vendemiano since the age of 7,[17] Del Piero used to play as a goalkeeper because he could play a lot more football that way. His mother thought it would be better for him if he played as a goalkeeper, since he would not sweat and the possibility of him getting injured was less likely. His brother Stefano told their mother: "Don't you see that Alex is good in the attack?" and Del Piero switched position.[18]
It was while playing with his local side of San Vendemiano in 1988 that Del Piero was first spotted by scouts — he left home at the young age of 13 to play in the youth side of Padova Calcio.
Juventus
In 1993, he transferred to Juventus, and has been there ever since.[19] Del Piero made his Serie A debut against Foggia in September 1993, scored his first goal in his next game against Reggiana after appearing as a substitute, and then grabbed a hat-trick against Parma on his first start. Juventus claimed their first Scudetto in eight years in his first season and success continued to follow. With the Turin club, he won the Serie A championship seven times (1995, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006[20]), the Champions League (1996), and the Intercontinental Cup (1996). His best season was in 1997-98, when he scored 21 goals in Serie A and finished top scorer in the Champions League with 10 goals, which included a peach of a freekick against Monaco in the semi finals. His goal in the 1997 UEFA Champions League Final was unable to prevent Juventus from going down 3-1 to Borussia Dortmund.Del Piero struggled for form at the beginning of the 1998-99 season, whilst doping allegations were aimed at Juventus (they were later found innocent). In October he picked up a serious knee injury in the 2-2 draw with Udinese. This kept him out of action for the remainder of the season. Juventus struggled without him and limped home to a lowly 6th place in the league.
During this time, Del Piero earned the nickname Il Pinturicchio, in reference to a comment by former president Gianni Agnelli when he compared the emerging Del Piero to the renaissance artist Pinturicchio. He's also been nicknamed by the fans "Il Fenomeno Vero"[21] meaning "The Real Phenomenon", in a sort of comparison with Ronaldo, who was nicknamed "Il Fenomeno" by rival supporters of Internazionale.
One of Del Piero's greatest strengths as a footballer is his versatility, which allows him to play in a variety of attacking positions. While he started his club career playing as an out-and-out striker, he settled into a deeper role as a support-striker. He has also been positioned as a playmaker in the central slot behind the forwards. Under Marcello Lippi's reign as Juventus coach Del Piero played in the "trident-attack" formation along with veterans Gianluca Vialli and Fabrizio Ravanelli. After that, he took a role in a combination with Zinédine Zidane behind Filippo Inzaghi. As Juve's playing style changed in Lippi's second stint with Juventus starting 2001, Del Piero partnered with Zidane's replacement Pavel Nedvěd in midfield and David Trézéguet upfront.
After Euro 2004, Marcello Lippi was replaced by Fabio Capello as Juventus coach. Capello was not convinced of Del Piero's abilities and frequently benched him in favor of the new signing Zlatan Ibrahimović, much to the disappointment of many fans. But Del Piero still managed to score 14 goals as Juventus won their 28th league title, thanks to his spectacular overhead assist to teammate David Trezeguet which proved decisive in a crucial match against AC Milan at the San Siro.
In 2006 Del Piero equalled José Altafini's Serie A record of 6 goals as a substitute after scoring in the final minute of Juventus's final game of the 2005-06 season. On January 10, 2006 Del Piero became the all time leading goalscorer for Juventus when he scored three times in a Coppa Italia match against Fiorentina and took his total goals for the club to 185. The previous record holder was Giampiero Boniperti, who scored 182 goals for the club.[24] Del Piero scored the last goal for Juventus the 2005-06 season before Juve were forcibly relegated due to the infamous Calciopoli scandal.
2006-07 season in the Serie B
Juventus were demoted to Serie B and their last two Scudetti were revoked (see 2006 Italian football scandal). Del Piero announced that he would stay to captain the team in Serie B. He underlined that players should stick with the team, explaining that “The Agnelli family deserve this, as do the fans and the new directors".[25] While many key players such as Zlatan Ibrahimović, Fabio Cannavaro and Lilian Thuram left Turin, he chose to stay and help Juve regain promotion.Del Piero's first appearance after the World Cup's triumph was in the Coppa Italia match against Cesena on August 23, 2006. Since Juventus played in Serie B for the 2006-07 season, the Coppa Italia campaign became increasingly important for the club in order to achieve a UEFA Cup spot. Having been on vacation beforehand, Del Piero started on the bench. Juventus and Cesena were locked on 1-1 when Del Piero entered in the 74th minute and after 9 seconds scored the winning goal for Juventus.[26]
Del Piero then came in as a substitute at the 61st minute for Juve's next Coppa Italia match on August 27 vs. S.S.C. Napoli. Again Juventus were behind, but Del Piero scored twice to give Juve the lead. In the end the match went to penalties. Del Piero scored but Napoli eventually won 5-4 in the shoot-out.[27]
Following this, Alex was locked in months of fractious negotiations over the signing of a new contract with Juventus' new management. After successfully negotiating a new contract till 30 June 2010, Alex was greeted with news of the birth of his first child, Tobias Del Piero. This was quite a staggering turnaround in his fortunes, as only two weeks earlier he was dropped by Claudio Ranieri for the Serie A match with ACF Fiorentina and was then axed from Roberto Donadoni’s Italy squad for the games with Georgia and South Africa.
In February 2008, he scored the winning goal for Juventus in a Serie A victory at home to AS Roma (1-0). He scored two goals away at Lazio and was named to two consecutive Serie A teams of the week. On 6 April 2008 he set a new appearance record for Juventus, overtaking Gaetano Scirea's previous tally of 552 matches in all competitions.[28] In April, he registered seven goals in five Serie A matches, including a hat-trick in a 4-0 away win over Atalanta.
On the final weekend of the 2007/2008 season Del Piero scored a brace against Sampdoria in a 3-3 draw. These two goals were crucial as it took him to 21 goals for the season, thus winning him the Capocannonieri prize in Serie A for the first time in his illustrious career, beating the likes of David Trezeguet (20 goals) and Marco Borriello (19 goals) and matching his highest tally for a top-flight season since 1997/98.[29]
On May 17, 2008, in the final round of the 2007-08 season against Sampdoria, Del Piero scored his 20th and 21st goals, thus becoming the Capocannoniere and clinching his long overdue first Serie A golden boot. Thus, he became only the second Italian ever to win consecutive Capocannoniere titles in two different leagues - former Juventus and 1982 FIFA World Cup hero Paolo Rossi being the other one (coincidentally Rossi too won the Capocannoniere titles like Alessandro first in Serie B and then in Serie A). On July 26, 2008, Del Piero was awarded the Scirea Award.
2008-09 season and beyond
During the 2008-09 summer pre-season, Juventus played Hamburger SV and Arsenal F.C. in the Emirates Cup, and played a friendly versus Manchester United at Old Trafford. Juventus' coach Claudio Ranieri remarked that Del Piero would have as good a season, or an even better one, than the previous term. In August 2008, Del Piero announced that he would try to keep playing professional football with Juventus until he is 40 years old.With Juventus back in the Champions League, they were drawn into the same group as former winners Real Madrid and UEFA Cup winners Zenit St. Petersburg. Del Piero marked their return with a brilliant match-winning free kick to seal a home win against Zenit.[30] On October 21, he scored a wonderful first-time strike from distance as Juve defeated Real Madrid in Turin.[31] On October 21, he scored in Juve's Champions League match at home against Spanish club. In the fifth minute, from open play, Del Piero swerved the ball in the far corner of the goal with a freekick like shot, giving Casillas no chance, with Amauri scoring the second in the first few minutes of the second half.
On November 5, 2008, Juventus and Real Madrid squared off at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in the Champions League. The Italians won 2–0 (their first away win against Madrid since 1962), and Del Piero was a key performer, scoring both the goals and being praised by both Claudio Ranieri and Madrid coach Bernd Schuster.[32] As he left the pitch after being substituted, fans from both sides gave him a standing ovation.[33] However, Juventus' 2009 UEFA Champions League campaign ended in disappointment as they were eliminated by Chelsea in the 2nd round. Despite converting a penalty in the second leg in Turin, Del Piero was unable to prevent Juventus from losing 3-2 on aggregate.
In the league, Juventus were mostly challenging Milan for second place and an automatic Champions League place. Most notably, Del Piero inspired the Bianconeri to a 3-0 win over Siena in their penultimate game of the season, scoring a brace and setting up Claudio Marchisio for the youngster's third goal of the season to end their run of seven winless matches in the Serie A. Juve won 2-0 over Lazio to finish second ahead of Milan (based on their head-to-head record).
On 17 July 2009, Alessandro extended his contract with Juventus by 1 more year until June 30, 2011 in Pinzolo while training for pre-season, thus practically ensuring that he would retire at the club with which he started his professional career.[34] During his renewal, he said “I am happy at Juventus and we are competitive. I want to keep playing for as long as I can and I’m certain that for at least two more years I will be at the top level.” He marked his 445th Serie A appearance, breaking the all-time club record, with a brace against Genoa on 14 February 2010. He is also currently the all-time top scorer for Juventus, having scored more than 250 goals in all competitions. He has also made over 600 appearances in official matches for the club, breaking the record of Gaetano Scirea who had 552 appearances for Juventus.
On 14 March 2010, Alessandro recorded his 300th and 301st career goal during a 3-3 draw with Siena with the first two goals at the second and seventh minute. On 30 October 2010, Alessandro recorded his 179th Serie A goal, breaking the record of club legend Giampiero Boniperti as Juventus' top scorer in Serie A and further cemented his status as the most prolific goalscorer in Juventus history.
On February 5, 2011, with his substitution against Cagliari, Alessandro Del Piero became the most capped Juventus player, edging out former Juventus legend Giampiero Boniperti. Del Piero remains the third most capped player in the Serie A behind Javier Zanetti and Francesco Totti respectively.
International career
Del Piero is currently Italy's fourth all-time leading scorer. His tournament debut was Euro 96, but made his only appearance in the first half of a match against Russia before being substituted at halftime. Del Piero competed with fan favorite Roberto Baggio for a spot on the 1998 FIFA World Cup final roster while struggling to recover from injury suffered during the 1998 Champions League final with Juventus. He also missed two gilt-edged chances in Italy's 2-1 loss to France in the Euro 2000 final.He returned to the international scene in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, after a season in Serie A in which Juventus won the Scudetto.[35] Del Piero scored the decisive goal against Hungary, which sealed the Azzurri's qualification for the finals.[36] He instantly scored with a header against Mexico after coming on as a substitute, a goal which saved Italy from the ignominy of a first round exit. The goal sent Italy through to the second round, where they were eliminated due to a golden goal in a controversial match against South Korea.[37]
Del Piero began the 2006 World Cup on the bench, appearing in two out of three group stage matches, and made his first start of the competition in a 1-0 round-of-16 win over Australia on June 26. On July 4, Del Piero entered as a substitute near the end of regulation and scored Italy's second goal in a 2-0 semifinal win over host Germany.[38] In the final against France, which ended 1-1 after extra time, Del Piero scored a penalty in the shootout as Italy won the tournament for the fourth time. He admitted afterwards that winning the World Cup was his childhood dream.[39]
As of 2008, Del Piero has captained Italy seven times (including Euro 2008) . He also regularly wore the number 10, but later gave it to Francesco Totti and switched to the number 7, as it was the first number he wore at the start of his career. Even though the number 10 was vacated after Totti retired from the national team in July 2007, Del Piero denied any interest in taking back the number, saying he was satisfied with the number 7. On May he was recalled by popular demand to Italy's UEFA Euro 2008 squad after nine-month absence from international duty, and thus became the second Italian player to participate in 7 major international tournaments (EURO 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008; World Cup 1998, 2002, 2006).
Del Piero was called up to Italy's squad for the UEFA Euro 2008 Championship in Austria and Switzerland. He was mostly on the substitutes' bench but started against Romania as the squad's captain. In the group match against the Dutch, he came on for the under-performing Antonio Di Natale and made an immediate impact, including several efforts on goal. However he could not prevent the Azzurri from a 3-0 loss. Italy qualified through the group stage in second-place behind Holland, eliminating Romania and France. In the quarter-final against Spain, Del Piero made a substitute appearance during extra-time, and with the game ending in a 0-0 draw, it was decided by a penalty shootout in which Spain won 4-2.[40] On 20 August 2008 he won his 90th cap for Italy in friendly against Austria - only the fifth Azzurri player to reach this landmark. Despite announcing that he will carry on playing until he is 40 years old, he has not been called up since Italy's qualifier against Georgia on September 10, 2008.
The semifinal between Germany and Italy produced an entertaining extra time period that went scoreless until the 118th minute, when Italy scored twice through Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero, putting an end to Germany's undefeated record in Dortmund, and continued their dominance over Die Nationalelf.
Personal life
Del Piero is married to Sonia Amoruso, and the two have been together since 1999 and married in 2005.[41] The couple announced in July 2007 that they were expecting their first baby.[41] On 22 October 2007, Amoruso gave birth to baby boy Tobias Del Piero at 0:20 at Sant'Anna hospital in Turin.[42][43] On February 14, 2009, Amoruso's second pregnancy was announced.[44] On May 5, 2009 their daughter Dorotea was born in Turin.[45] On September, 12, 2010 Del Piero announced on his personal website the upcoming birth of his third child.[46]Del Piero has used his fame and money to promote and support cancer research; in recognition of this he has received from the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro a prize of "Believe in Research" during November 2006.[47]
When the Olympic Flame for the 2006 Winter Olympics passed through Turin, Del Piero was a torchbearer.[48] He has an interest in sports outside of football (particularly basketball) and in turn has gained fans outside of just football, sport icons such as NBA star Steve Nash and cycling legend Eddy Merckx have stated that they are fans of Del Piero.[49][50]
As well as an interest in other sports, Del Piero also has a keen interest in music. He has even recorded some albums of his own.[51] Along with Marco Materazzi, Del Piero appeared on stage at a Rolling Stones show in Milan shortly after Italy's World Cup win.[52] He is a good friend of musician and singer Noel Gallagher and a fan of his former band Oasis. Del Piero appears in the Oasis video "Lord Don't Slow Me Down".[53]
On 9 February 2009, it was reported that Del Piero was suing the social networking site Facebook over a fake profile bearing his name that links to Nazi propaganda sites. He was said to be aggrieved that the bogus account, which carries his picture, implies neo-Nazi sympathies as he did not have a Facebook profile at that time.[54]
Besides scoring goals, Del Piero is also known for his sense of humour and is a popular guest at Italian comedy shows such as Paperissima and Striscia la notizia. His goal celebration usually consists of him running to the touchline in front of Juve fans sticking his tongue out and has done the back-flip goal celebration on several occasions. He featured in the show La sai l'ultima di Totti, a comedy sketch created by his good friend and Roma captain Francesco Totti where the two of them and national teammates Milan defender Alessandro Nesta and Juve teammate Gianluigi Buffon would tell jokes about one another.
On TV, Del Piero is famous not just for his matches, but also for broadcasting and advertising skills. He is under contract with German sports equipment manufacturer Adidas,with Uliveto water, Italian car manufacturer Fiat and Japanese motorbike company Suzuki. In 2006 he appeared in a television commercial for the Japanese motor scooter Suzuki Burgman together with the sports agent Andreas Goller.[55]
Del Piero was also featured on the cover of EA Sports' FIFA Football 2004 video game, alongside Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho. He was one of the two stars featured on the cover of the Italian version of PES 2010 video game, the other being Barcelona FC and Argentina star Lionel Messi
Honours
Club
Juventus- Serie A (5): 1994-95, 1996-97, 1997-98, 2001-02, 2002-03, (2004-05, 2005-06 stripped after calciopoli)
- Serie B (1): 2006-2007
- Supercoppa Italiana (4): 1995, 1997, 2002, 2003
- Coppa Italia (1): 1994-95
- UEFA Intertoto Cup (1): 1999
- UEFA Champions League (1): 1995-96
- UEFA Super Cup (1): 1996
- Intercontinental Cup (1): 1996
Individual
- ESM Team of the Year(3): 1995-96, 1996–97, 1997–98
- Best young player: 1995
- Most Valuable Player of the Intercontinental Cup: 1996
- European Footballer of the Year Under-21: 1996
- Golden Foot to career: 2007
- Scirea Award to career: 2008
- Oscar AIC - Italian Footballer ot the Year(2): 1998, 2008
- Oscar AIC - Top Scorer: 2008 (28 goals)
- Juventus Football Club top scorer:
- all-time (280 goals)
- 1997-1998 (10 goals)
- 2005-2006 (5 goals)
- 2006-2007 (20 goals)
- 2007-2008 (21 goals)
Records
- Juventus All-Time Leading Scorer (281 goals)
- Juventus All-Time Leading Scorer Champions League (45)
- Juventus All-Time Leading Scorer UEFA Competitions (53)
- Juventus All-Time Leading Scorer International competitions (54)
- Juventus All-Time Leading Scorer in the Italian championships (181)
- Juventus All-Time Leading Scorer Italian Super Cup (3)
- Juventus All-Time Juventus appearances holder Serie A: (435)
- Juventus All-Time Juventus appearances holder in the UEFA club competitions: (115)
- Juventus All-Time Juventus appearances holder in international competitions: (120)
- Juventus All-Time Juventus appearances leader (653)
- Latest goal from kickoff in a FIFA World Cup match (121st minute)
- Most Participations in UEFA European Championships (4) (Tied with 5 others)
- Only Italian footballer to have scored 2 goals at the Santiago Bernabeu: (2008–2009, Real Madrid-Juventus 0-2)
- 4th highest ever goal scorer for the Italian National Team : (27)
Orders
- 5th Class / Knight: Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 2000[60]
- 4th Class / Official: Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 2006
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