Alessandro Del Piero

Alessandro Del Piero


Alessandro Del Piero, Cavaliere Ufficiale OMR (born November 9, 1974 in Conegliano Veneto) is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who plays for Serie A club Juventus. Due to his great ability and record number of appearances and goals, he is fondly referred to as "The Old Master" and "Il Padrino".

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. Brazilian star Ronaldinho proclaimed that Del Piero is his idol. 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.Currently, Del Piero is still the highest earning Italian Player.

Along with three awards in Italy for gentlemanly conduct he has also won the Golden Foot award, which pertains to personality and playing ability.
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." His free-kick and penalty taking is also highly regarded. Del Piero has become famous over the years for scoring from a special "Del Piero Zone", approaching from the left flank and curling a precise lob into the far top corner of the goal.

In terms of goalscoring, Del Piero holds the all-time record at Juventus. On April 6, 2008, Alessandro Del Piero became the all-time highest-capped Juventus player, ahead of Juve legend Gaetano Scirea. He is in sixth place in the UEFA Champions League all-time goalscorer records. Within the Italian national team, he is currently joint fourth with Roberto Baggio in the all-time scoring records.

Personal information

Full name Alessandro Del Piero
Date of birth November 9, 1974 (1974-11-09) (age 34)
Place of birth Conegliano Veneto (TV), Italy
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing position Second striker

Club information

Current club Juventus
Number 10

Youth career

1981–1988 San Vendemiano
1988–1991 Padova

Senior career*

Years Team Apps (Gls)†
1991–1993 Padova 014 00(1)
1993– Juventus 0435 0(188)

National team‡

1993–1996 Italy U-21 012 0(3)
1995–2008 Italy 091 0(27)

early career

Juventus

In 1993, he transferred to Juventus, and has been there ever since. 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), 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.

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.Upon his late substitution, he received a standing ovation from both sections of the crowd, an honor bestowed only on other stalwarts like Ronaldinho and Diego Maradona.

Winning the Capocannoniere for the season 2007-08 enured that Alessandro 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.

During the 2008-2009 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 Juve until he is 40 years old.

On September 17, 2008 Juventus returned to the Champions League after two seasons. Alessandro marked their return with a brilliant match-winning free-kick goal 38 metres away against FC Zenit St. Petersburg in Turin (1-0).[31] On October 21, he scored a wonderful first-time strike from distance as Juve defeated Real Madrid CF in Turin.

In the return match on the 5th of November, he was again the match winner for Juventus as he scored both goals at the Santiago Bernabéu against Real Madrid, becoming the first Juve player to have scored two exquisite goals in the same match at this ground to secure Juventus' qualification for last 16 of UEFA Champions League. Near the end of the match, he was substituted and was given a standing ovation by the whole crowd, including applauses off the field by Madrid fans.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.

On 17th July 2009, Alex 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. . 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.

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 guilt-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. Del Piero scored the decisive goal against Hungary, which sealed the Azzurri's qualification for the finals. 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 S. Korea

Honours

Juventus F.C.

* Serie A: 1994-95, 1996-97, 1997-98, 2001-02, 2002-03
* Coppa Italia: 1994-95
* Supercoppa Italiana: 1995, 1997, 2002, 2003
* Serie B: 2006-07
* UEFA Champions League: 1995-96
* UEFA Super Cup: 1996
* UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1999
* Intercontinental Cup: 1996

Juventus Youth Team

* Torneo di Viareggio: 1994

Italy National Football Team

* UEFA Under-21 European Championship 2: 1994, 1996
* FIFA World Cup 1: 2006

Individual

* Bravo Award: 1996
* Italian Footballer of the Year: 1998, 2008
* ESM Team of the Year: 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98
* Intercontinental Cup Man of the match: 1996
* UEFA Champions League Top Scorer: 1997, 1998
* FIFA 100
* Coppa Italia Top Scorer: 2006
* Golden Foot: 2007
* Serie B Top Scorer: 2007
* Serie A Top Scorer: 2008
* Premio Nazionale Carriera Esemplare "Gaetano Scirea": 2008
* USSI Silver Ball (Serie A Fair Play Award): 2008-09
* UEFA Champions League 10-Year Jubilee Poll - Best Attacker
* Juventus All-Time top scorer
* All-Time Juventus appearances leader