Hi, I was watching the ESPN pgae in spanish and I found this article, the writer its Randall Alvarez, he is in charge of following Serie A and he also comments Serie A games that ESPN broadcast in Latin America.
The artcle was on spanish, so I tok the liberty to trasnlated so you guys could read it...
Anyway here it is, I hope you enjoy it:
" All the big teams in the world, the ones been call to be the best, all of them have an emblematic player, a symbolic player, one player that has been always with the club, or at least a long time with the club, a player that represents all the love and passion for the club colours and has earn the love and respect of the fans. Alex Del Piero has been, in the last decade, that player for Juventus, however, this season the captain has suffer a bad period in his level that has put himself in a very difficult position.
¿ Will this means the end of the affair between Del Piero and La Vecchia Signora?
This is what many (including his exteammate Vialli) believe, saying that in general its very difficult for a player in his 30’s to face this kind of situation.
In my personal opinion, this is not the case.
Its true that “Pinturicchio” has not be the same that he was, but like any other emblematic player, it has his downs and his lows ( to some players the down times las longer than to others)
Del Piero represents a lot to Juventus and honestly, I don’t see him wearing another club’s jersey, and even if he is not a product of Juventus young system (he came from Padova when he was 18 years old in 1993), he has always carry the bianconero team in his guts.
I will always remember the impact that Alex’s apparition cause in the bianconero’s map, and impact that ironically will begin the ending of the Baggio’s days in Turin.
Juventus found the perfect player to pass the legacy…
After he won the Viareggio tounament with Juventus primavera team, Alex shine in his first season and help Juventus to conquer the Scudetto ending an 8 years drought.
After that, came the memorable victory in the 96’s Champions League where he shine behind Gianluca Vialli and Fabrizzio Ravanelli to consoled himself like the future star in Juventus.
However, the ghost of injuries and maybe a little of bad luck with in also, follow Del Piero since he was very young. His mother tells that since he was a child he was sick with frequency, and now has a soccer player we have follow his injuries and we can state that he has been propense to injuries and sickness ( The same thing happened with his bother Stefano, who had to retire form soccer for this reason). The most impact episode of a injury, was on 1998, this because of the extension of the injury, because he suffer it after hi lost the Cmapions Legue final and because of the fact that it occour the day before his 24 th birthday.
This happened on the physiological field, but ¿what about the emotional field?
Since his arrival in Juventus, Del Piero has have in his shoulders a lot of pressure and responsibility has a figure and symbol of the team and the azzurri. To many, he has been in debt, giving his potential, and he has been accuse of been “only a name” and not show up when he is need it.
I’m nobody to judge his mental strength in those cases when he was needed it, although I do can say that maybe the circumstances were not on his favour.
Its true that apart of losing 3 Championship finals, between Eucups and World Cups, Alex has only play 17 games and has scored only 2 goals, but we have to remember also that in the 1994 World Cup he had to “compete” with the legendary Baggio and in the 2002 Euro and in the 2002 Wold Cup his rival was Totti. At the end, although many said that his contribution was almost null in those tournaments, we have to remember that the deception and the failure was a collective thing.
In this season Fabio Capello`s arrival has not help much to Alex’s cause, coz after so many years of been used to Lippi’s treatments, now he finds himself with totally different ideas and with a coach that has always saw him from “ the other side of the pool”, a coach that doesn’t hesitated to leave him on the bench. By the way, the fact that Alex start form the first minute in Sampdoria’s game it was not a award because of the goal score against Atalanta, and it was not that Capello gave in before the pressure of the public and the press, Alex’s titularity was only because Capello wanted to give Zlatan a rest and Del Piero toke advantage of and play more than a decent full match. Now, this performance will not guarantee that the bianconero’s captain its going to start the next game, only Capello knows about this…
There are many speculations about why Alex’s form has go down, speculations that goes from accusations that this is the result of him using steroids a few years ago, to speculations that his emotional state hasn’t been the same since his father die in 2001.
I’m sure that Del Piero will go back to form and I have to say that I applaud Capello’s decisions of leaving him on the bench, coz sometimes this is good for star players.
In times like this, its very important to value his contributions trough the years, in the good ones and the bad ones. Thats why, Im confident that Juventus will not think of getting rid of his symbol (even in the bench he is still a symbol for the club) because we are talking of one of the most talented players of the last decade, a “fantasista”, a master of the stop ball, that you don’t see every day and that above all, carries La Vecchia Signora’s colours in his heart. "
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