Alex Del Piero, the record man.
Our capitano is the best scorer of the bianconera history. A fantastic goal he reached in 13 years of Juventus, that he tells us about with absolutely unique emotions and memories.
He’s the number one in the tifosi’s heart, because of the way he is, because of his playing style, because of way to represent Juventus all over the world. And now he is the number one of numbers. He’s the king of goals, he’s the player who scored the most in the bianconera shirt, the only one he wore since his debut in Serie A.
He broke Giampiero Boniperti’s record (182) on Jan. 10th 2006, in the second leg of the Coppa Italia eighty finals against Fiorentina, the team against which he scored one of his favourite goals. He was a boy on Dec. 4th 1994, when he scored that beautiful goal that overturned, together with Vialli’s brace, an ugly 0-2 into a beautiful 3-2, the proved that Juventus was a team full of temperament and with the guts, with a bright future ahead, that was going to begin a cycle of victories, that that 20 years old boy was going to become a star. An so it has been. 12 years later Del Piero broke the record of goals scored in black and white, again against Fiorentina, a sign of destiny. We’ll never forget that wonderful night. The so awaited record-breaker goal, the 183th, is scored after only 8 minutes: Alessandro receives the ball, he stops it and with a shoot made with his left foot scores it. The Capitano celebrates it with his teammates, with his tifosi and in the meanwhile Juventus, through his speaker, crowns him as the best scorer in the club’s history. Alessandro is unstoppable. So, at the 17’ minute, is scored the 184th, on a freekick, one of his specialities. And to put the cherry on top, at the 57’ minute he made it an hattrick scoring a penalty kick, arriving at 185. The party begins. At the end of the match he receives lots of compliments. Managers, friends, journalists and his coach, Fabio Capello: “It was a wonderful night for him. He surpassed Boniperti and he entered in the legend. He reached this goal thanks to what he has done in all these years and to the commitment he demonstrates everyday. He’s a player that gives always everything he has on the field. In this period he’s excellently fit, he’ll have a great second part of the season and will be fit for the WC”.
Juventus.com, that dedicates him a wonderful splash page and a special on his wonderful career, had record visiting, his personal website (alessandrodelpiero.com) is bombarded of messages form all over the world.
The enthusiasm waiting for the celebrative party, organized by the club for the prematch of the following Sunday, grows. A video with all the goals of our Capitano is broadcasted on the “mega-screen” of the Delle Alpi stadium. In the meanwhile there is a mega banner one the curva that says: “183 Alessandro Del Piero bianconero imperator”. Alessandro comes out a few minutes before the beginning of the warming up. He’s moved and goes under the curva, that demonstrates once again all its love for him, love that has accompanied him in every moment of his extraordinary/wonderful career. Then the official celebration starts. A couple of minutes before the start of the match 11 young boys enter on the field, wearing the shirts of the teams against which Alessandro scored his most important goals, form River Plate to Fiorentina, Milan, Inter, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. In the meanwhile on the screens is broadcasted the splash page of the Official site and, not far from the platform placed on the midfield, another banner is displayed: “Alessandro Del Piero 183 goals, one shirt, only in the history”. The Capitano goes to the platform accompanied by the president Franzo Grande Stevens, that gives him a plaque with all of his goals. “I want to thank the club and the tifosi for how they celebrated me” says Alessandro, that is going to make the day even more unforgettable, scoring the winning goal, another beauty, against Reggina. Another beauty, scored with an unsaveable left shot. So we reach 186, for now…
“Being part of the Juventus’ story is an honour for me. I want to thank the club, my trainers and my past and present teammates that permitted me to reach this extraordinary/wonderful goal. To tell the truth I haven’t realized what I’ve done yet – says Del Piero – but with the time this sensation will grow inside of me and become stronger, I’m sure. In fact as today I’m more concerned on being an athlete, on everyday facts, It’s still not the moment to remember goals scored or trophies won, it’s something I’ll see differently in a couple of years. Now it’s like a wonderful achieved goal for me, but also like an important moment in a long journey…”.
Of course, because our Alessandro has every intention to increase dramatically the amount of scored goals and to keep on leading our, his Juventus to the most prestigious visctories, the highest goals. But not only goals make a player become a legend. There are other things, their human side included. So leaving a mark, like he has done and he’s doing, always with that something more than the others, is not a privilege of many. ”It’s not only the quantity of goals scored or of caps that leave a mark – he confirms – these things are important and of significant, but they’re not the only ones that count. One can leave a mark in many ways, also for what he gives on a human level. For example: Gianluca Vialli was bianconero only for a few years, but he did extraordinary things, he was here in a fantastic moment of this team and he’s remembered with love. Love, but the one for Alessandro is true love. Because Juventus’ tifosi, his tifosi, consider him like part of their family. They celebrate with him the good times, they have supported him in difficult ones, there is an unbreakable bond between him and his tifosi. The near ones, who live our adventures day by day, but also the far ones. Del Piero is Juve, all over the world. It’s an association of ideas, born and grown in a way that is difficult to explain, maybe with the famous goal at the Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo, but making this the only explanation would be restrictive. It’s something unexplainable and beautiful, beautiful like the demonstrations of love he receives from all over the world. A nice example: the day of his 30th birthday a fax was received in the Juventus’ offices. It had a drawing of our capitano on it, made by a child aged 6-7, and there was written “ti amo!”. This is the “phenomenon Del Piero”: “It’s what make me proud the most. I don’t even understand how it started, but it’s something wonderful. Sometimes I try to find a reason and I’m sure it’s the sum of many components. Surely one of them is the imagine of a winning Juventus to which I’m bound, having contributed to the victories of these last 13 years. Another component I think it’s the way I behave. Sure, I’m very jealous of my privacy, but it’s also true that it’s doesn’t happen more than 2 or 3 times a year that I don’t stop outside the training camp without signing autographs or meeting the tifosi. Then there is my life: I come from the province, form a family without pretences, that worked hard for the few lire that permitted us to have a good life”.
Ale is the dream, the tale of a child of the province, who supports Juve and that becomes the symbol of his team. A tale made of sacrifices (he left his family at 13 to go to play for Padova’s youth team), of difficulties overcome with an interior strength and, like every tale, it has an happy end. Because he’s here, to incarnate the hope of all the boys who dream to wear the shirt of their favourite team. Ale is a model for them, for everyone, because Del Piero is the best imagine modern football can offer. If it has become a commonplace saying that there are no more flags in football, he’s indeed a flag, he made his debut in a team, he grew up in the same team and he’s its soul.
It’s a beautiful image, because he’s always kept a flawless behaviour, never said a word too much, never behaved unfairly, never got in any polemic. On the opposite he’s a master in keeping away from these things with a rare class and that he affined living for 13 years in a club always under the spotlight. And the tifosi can feel this. “Also recently I received demonstrations of love form people I meet in the streets, from colleagues, even from some politicians. So I stopped and I told myself ‘Wow, Ale, it seems you had a bit of success’”. And it has been a very long way for our star, under every aspect. The temperamental one, without any doubt, but also the athletic one. Del Piero was one of the protagonists of the wonderful Lippi era, but also after the injury of Nove. 8th 1998 he remained the indispensable leader of this team. In fact, watching the statistics, in the first 6 years he scored 78 goals, in the last six 98. When we remind him of this and we tell him that this could be a good answer to those that after the injury considered him finished, Ale answers with his usual calmness, but something in his eyes gives away that this is something that he particularly cares about/wants to say: “It makes me proud, but I never used these numbers, because it’s not the way I am. Let’s say that it’s an answer given by the field, that it’s what I care the most about. For a forward scoring is essential”. Scoring, of course, but also the assists have their importance and Ale made lots of them. For example, of the most recent ones, the one in San Siro last season, that permitted Trezeguet to score the goal that defeated Milan, the first opponent for the scudetto. “Working for the team is really important, under every aspect – Confirms Del Piero – That one was different from the others and it pleased me, because I made it in a particular match, in a particular moment, since we had just got out of the Champions League”.
Let’s go back, to 1993, to the eighteen years old Del Piero, that had just been bought by his favourite team and that with its Primavera was already winning the championship and the Viareggio trophy.
“It was a good experience, unforgettable. That Juve Primavera was a strong team, that succeeded in two competitions that Juve hadn’t won for a long time. Even if it hadn’t been a good year for the first team, more like a transitional season, there have been some satisfactions for the youth team”.
But you already trained with the first team.
“Let’s say that I was in between the two. I trained regularly with the first team, I went to the retreats and Trapattoni even let me play. At the end of the season I had 14 caps and 5 goals scored. What can I say? Wonderful for being the first season”.
And of that year is one of the first memories about the Avvocato Agnelli, who has later followed your journey step by step and was always particularly attentive to you. We remember, for example, the nickname “Pinturicchio” that has followed you for many years.
“In fact I have many memories of the Avvocato, but there is one that I feel is nice to tell in this occasion. It happened in that first year at Juventus. Before the home match against Milan, that we lost 0-1, there were many injuried players in the team e Trapattoni decided to let me play. It was my first important match, I was only 19. I remember that before going to the field for the pre-match warm up, they told me there was a phone call for me. I went to the phone and I heard the Avvocato’s voice. I wanted to wish me good luck. I remained speechless”.
Let’s talk about the day of your debut, on September 12th 1993: Foggia - Juventus 1-1.
“To tell the truth the thing I remember the most is not the moment I entered, I was more moved by the match I watched from the bench. We were drawing against Foggia, that at the time was a quite strong team. Let’s say that I have more vivid memories of the following week”.
You mean of September 19th 1993: At the Delle Alpi is played the match Juventus – Reggiana. Ale scores his first goal with the bianconera shirt.
“It was a very exciting day. We won, I scored my first goal and it was also my parent’s wedding anniversary. It was a special day under every aspect”.
Then everything changed. At the end of that season arrived Marcello Lippi and the Triade. Juventus started to win again. A group made of many stars, first of all Vialli, and of a youngster with a great talent that was going to grow up in that group and become its leader.
“I often think back to that fantastic group, only a few of us is still here. In the last years Conte, Ferrara, Tacchinardi went away and so now it’s just Pessotto, Birindelli and me. That was an extraordinary group, it permit us youngster to grow up in it and together we obtained extraordinary victories. In a few years we did wonderful things, included the victory in the Champions League, finally, since Juve won it only once before that, but it was a success ruined by the Heysel tragedy. It was like a curse and we broke it. Those were the years when I really grew up and I thank Marcello Lippi and my teammates of then for it.”
How much do you feel you have changed from the young Del Piero?
“Not much changed, I matured a lot. In fact I believe that everything I was before turning 18 has been a fundamental base of the man I’ve become”.
What does it mean, for you, having grown up in a club like Juventus, that is seen as a model all over the world?
“It was more than important, it was fundamental. My personal history, my experience as a player have matured in this environment, deeply influenced by the style and the charisma of people like the Avvocato Gianni Agnelli, Chiusano, Grande Stevens, and Bettega, Giraudo, Moggi. In particular I’d want to dedicate a thought to the Dottor Umberto, who has always been close to the team and to me. He was discreet, but always attentive, incisive, a true reference point for all of us”.
The first year of the new Juventus coincided with the first scudetto. An adjective to describe it.
“Unique and unforgettable”.
An emotion that can compare with others, but there’s another one that the tifosi remember quite intensely: the May 5th 2002 one. How would you describe it?
“It was a great joy, because it was rare, unexpected”
Let’s go back to the first scudetto’s year. In that season you scored one of your most beautiful goals. Dec. 4th 1994: Juventus – Fiorentina 3-2.
“That goal is, without any doubt, one of my two favourites. It was a beautiful goal, scored in an unforgettable day. The catching up on Fiorentina, from 0-2 to 3-2 thanks to Vialli’s brace and my goal, it was a great demonstration of personality from our team, that from then started its cycle of amazing victories”.
The highest point of that wonderful period of time was the Toyota Cup, won thanks to a goal of yours, that you’re fond of almost as much as the one we spoke before about. A victory that took Juventus on top of the world.
“I agree. That was a beautiful, important, unforgettable goal. And the success in the Toyota Cup was the perfect end to 2 years of victories”.
Is there a third goal that has a peculiar meaning to you?
“The one I scored in Bari on Feb. 18th 2001, a few days after my father died”.
Talking about goals, how do you prefer scoring?
“Surely freekicks give me a lot of satisfaction. Then I like the three I scored with the backheel, one, unfortunately, useless in the final against Borussia Dortmund, one home against Siena and one against Torino”.
A goal you haven’t scored yet and would like to.
“I hope one day I’ll score one with a bicycle kick”.
Let’s talk about penalties. You’re practically infallible.
“No, unfortunately I failed some of them”.
Not many, anyway. How can you remain concentrated in a moment like that?
“It’s a moment were you have to be calm, the goal is wide. Nowadays goalkeepers have more chances to save them, because they’re better and prepared, also with the help of VHSs. So you have to remain calm and have a bit of luck, that is never bad. Then it can happen that you shot powerfully and the keeper can’t reach it, that the field is humid and the ball slips. Well the components to score a penalty are really a lot”.
Is there a goal you scored but it’s not written in football’s history?
“Yeah, there is one pleasant to remember, also because it was a beautiful one, but that was disallowed because the match was forfeited and we won 3-0. It was the 1994-95 season and we played in Sofia against CSKA in the Uefa Cup. We lost the match 3-2, but they fielded a suspended player, so the match was disallowed”.
Can you describe the goal?
“Of course. I received the ball and controlled it with my right backheel and avoided my opponent and with a lob I put it behind the keeper”.
How precise! How many goals of yours do you remember in this way?
“Many”.
More or less 80% of them?
“Even more if I have a list of the matches in front of me”.
Don’t you think that in these 13 years of victories you could have deserved the Golden Ball? Perhaps in that period, between 1996 and 1998, where you won and scored a lot?
“Perhaps there was the chance of winning it then, but, to tell the truth, it’s not like I can’t sleep without it”.
How much time has passed from then, how many victories, how many goals… talking about goals, when in the 2001-02 season in the match against Venezia you scored your 100th (and 101rst, since it was a brace), did you think about breaking Boniperti’s record?
“At the time the thought didn’t really cross my mind”.
But here you are, the best scorer ever. What has Boniperti told you?
“I’ve spoken to him on the phone, he was very nice also for how he spoke to me. He demonstrated to think highly of me”.
Looking at the list of the best scorers did you notice that the Juventina experience of the first two (Boniperti and Bettega) didn’t end on the field and that both of them became winning managers of the team?
“Many made me notice it. To tell the truth I never thought about it, I’m still a ‘field man’”
And we are happy about it, because the story of Ale and Juventus can still give us many satisfactions, who knows maybe also the third star…
“Yeah, scudetti, but also the Champions League, an objective that will try to reach with all of ourselves this year”.
In the international field there is another much awaited appointment. The WC in Germany. And Ale has still an ‘open discourse’ with the NT. In fact, in his extraordinary career he won a lot with Juventus and nothing with the azzurra shirt. Has the time come?
“Winning with the NT is much more difficult. Italy has often come close to it, but in the last 40 years succeeded only once. This year we’re well equipped and mature. True, there are other very strong NTs, but if we manage to arrive there in a perfect psychological/athletic/tactic fitness, we can do well”.
So good luck for everything, capitano, for keeping on winning together and thanks for the joys you’ve given and will keep on giving us, for your spectacular skills, for your goals, for your personality and your joyfulness, well, like your autobiography says, for being “Simply Del Piero”. Simply the best…
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