History and Biography of Alessandro Del Piero

Summary

“Alessandro Del Piero”, Cavaliere Ufficiale OMRI (born November 9, 1974 in Conegliano) is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer. He is the captain of Juventus where he holds several club records (218 goal) and he is a member of the Italian national team.

His footballing ability is highly regarded and he has won critical recognition. Pelé named Del Piero in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA’s centenary celebrations. He 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.

As well as earning respect for his playing, Del Piero has won several accolades for his character. Along with three awards in Italy for gentlemanly conduct he has also won the “Golden Foot” award, which pertains to personality and playing ability.

Usually, Del Piero 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.

In terms of goalscoring, Del Piero holds the all-time record at Juventus. 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.

Childhood and early career

Del Piero was born in Conegliano, Veneto, Italy, the son of Gino Del Piero, an electrician and Bruna Del Piero, a housekeeper. He regularly played football in the backyard with three friends, Nelso, Pierpaolo, and Giovanni-Paolo as a child, all three dreamed of becoming a footballer but only Del Piero would eventually manage to do so.

Alessandro’s brother who is nine years older, Stefano Del Piero was also keenly interested in football. Stefano briefly played professional football for Sampdoria before injury struck him. The family lived in a rural home in San Vendemiano, while growing up Del Piero’s family didn’t have much money for travelling abroad, so he was considering being a lorry driver in order to see the world. 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 wouldn’t 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.

It was while playing with his local side of “AC 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. He got his first chance at professional football in 1991 where he played in the Italian Serie B league four times. The following season he played ten games for Padova and scored his first professional goal.

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 UEFA Champions League with 10 goals, which included a peach of a freekick against Monaco in the semi finals.

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 Serie A. It is claimed by some that Del Piero has never fully recovered from this injury, and therefore never quite fulfilled the potential he had shown at a very young age.

His nickname is “Pinturicchio”, in reference to a joke by Gianni Agnelli when he compared the emerging Del Piero to Roberto Baggio in a parallel between the student Pinturicchio from Perugia and the teacher Perugino. He’s also been nicknamed by the fans ‘Il Fenomeno Vero’ meaning the real ‘Phenomenon’.

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 a full-fledged striker, he settled into a deeper role as a support-striker. Because of his great technical ability, accurate passing skills and impressive vision, he has also been positioned as a playmaker in the central slot behind the forwards. In any zone surrounding the penalty area, his prowess as a creator of goals came to the fore. Under Marcello Lippi’s reign as Juventus coach, Del Piero’s creative abilities were on display whatever the coach’s formation was. Del Piero showed his class in the lethal ‘trident-attack’ formation along with veterans Gianluca Vialli and Fabrizio Ravanelli. After that, he took a leading role in a creative combination with Zinedine Zidane behind Filippo Inzaghi. As Juve’s playing style changed in Lippi’s second stint with Juventus starting 2001, Del Piero was still vital as his partnerships with Pavel Nedv?d in midfield and David Trezeguet upfront has contributed enormously to Juve’s continued success in Italy and Europe.

Del Piero is currently the all-time top scorer for Juventus, in all competitions he has also made over 500 appearances in official matches for the club.

Italian national team

Despite huge success on the club level, he has been somewhat disappointing playing for the Italian national team, although he is currently the national teams all-time 4th topscorer.

His first tournament was Euro 96, but he only played the first half of Italy’s match against Russia as he was substituted at half time. He didn’t make another appearance in the tournament, as Italy crashed out in the first round.

Coming into the 1998 FIFA World Cup with huge expectations, he competed with fan favorite Roberto Baggio for a spot, and had some troubles because of a recent injury he picked up during the Champions’ League final whilst playing for Juventus. Two years later Del Piero became one of the culprits for Italy’s last minute loss in Euro 2000 final, missing 2 chances, which could have killed France off.

However, he returned to the international scene in the 2002 FIFA World Cup on the back of a very impressive season in Serie A, in which he led Juventus to the title. Del Piero scored the decisive goal against Hungary which qualified the Azzurri to the World Cup. In the tournament he scored a goal against Mexico with his first touch of the game seconds within coming on as a substitute to send Italy through to the second round, but they would get no further.

After Euro 2004, Del Piero faced another tough moment after Juventus replaced their Coach Marcello Lippi with Fabio Capello. Capello was not convinced of Del Piero’s abilities and favoured the new signing from Ajax, Zlatan Ibrahimovi?. However, the Juve captain fought back and scored 14 goals in Serie A that season helping Juventus to their 28th Scudetto. Most memorable perhaps was his bicycle-kick against AC Milan which clinched the title.

Although a strong fan favourite, the Juventus captain found himself starting on the bench for most of Italy’s matches in the World Cup 2006. During all of the group stage matches, Del Piero started on the bench, coming on twice. He was a late game substitute in the first match with Ghana. Then in the following match he came on as a substitute at the 54th minute in the match against the United States in which he represented a constant threat to the U.S. defence. The match was to end in a 1-1 draw.

Del Piero was more active for Italy during the knockout stages, starting in the last sixteen clash with Australia. On July 4, 2006 while facing host nation Germany in the semifinals of the competition, Del Piero, after coming on as a substitute towards the end of the game, changed the destination of the match with his presence on the attack and went on to score Italy’s second goal. In a devastating break, Italy moved forwards quickly, barely giving Germany time to get back. Gilardino, who had kept the ball outside the German box, laid off a cute ball for the oncoming Del Piero, who deftly curled the ball past Jens Lehmann, thus sealing Germany’s fate. This goal was chosen as one of the best in the tournament with Del piero going on to be considered to have been the decisive factor of the match.

In Italy’s semi final game in the 2006 FIFA World Cup against Germany Del Piero scored a record latest goal in the tournement’s history in 120 minutes plus stoppage time. The final whistle blew 8 seconds after he scored.

In the final, Del Piero scored the fourth penalty kick of the World Cup 2006 by sending the ball to the upper left while France’s goalkeeper, Fabien Barthez, dove to the right. This helped Italy to win the World Championship for the 4th time in its history. Italy managed to score all five penalties. Del Piero admitted subsequently that winning the World Cup was his childhood dream.

Apart from being Juventus’ captain, Del Piero occasionally captained Italy in the absence of the current captain at that time. As of 2006, Del Piero has captained Italy 5 times. He also had the honour of wearing the number ten for the Italian National Team. He later gave the jersey to Francesco Totti, who is still using that number although recently under manager Roberto Donadoni it’s been used by other players including Antonio Cassano and Daniele De Rossi. Del Piero switched to the Azzurri shirt number of 7 for sentimental reasons since this was the first number in which he ever played professional football. Since the international retirement of team mate Francesco Totti the number 10 shirt has become available for Del Piero to have once again, however Del Piero has denied any interest in taking back the number as he is quite happy with the number 7.

2006-07 season and onwards

Experts agree that Del Piero was back to his best in the 2005-06 season having scored 20 goals in all competitions. His most memorable goal this season was the free kick which won the match against bitter rivals Internazionale. However, his role at Juventus changed in the following season, as coach Fabio Capello preferred to use him as a substitute for an ‘immediate impact’, as Capello put it. 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. Del Piero himself is ambivalent about his ability to get goals off the bench, stating that ‘I want people to know me for more than being able to come off the bench to change a game’, and in late March of 2006 revealed his openness to finishing his career with a club outside of Italy if it would guarantee him a place as a starting forward.

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. Del Piero scored the last goal for Juventus in their latest Scudetto for the 05/06 Season.

Due to the Calciopoli scandal, Juventus were demoted to Serie B and their last two Scudetti were revoked. Del Piero announced that he will 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’.

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 will be playing 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 being in vacation beforehand, Del Piero started from 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.

Del Piero then came in as a substitute at the 61′ minute for Juve’s next Coppa match on August 27 vs. Napoli in Napoli’s stadium, the San Paolo. Again Juventus was behind but Del Piero scored twice to give Juve the lead. In the end the match went into penalties, Del Piero scored a decisive one, but Napoli eventually won 5-4 in the shoot-out.

As of May 2007, Del Piero has 217 goals for Juventus in official matches (includes Serie A, Serie B, Champions League, Coppa Italia and other official competitions). He scored his 200th goal for the Bianconeri in the match against Frosinone on the 28th October 2006. In February and March 2007 Del Piero scored 2 consecutive hat-tricks at Juventus’ home ground against Crotone and Piacenza. As of May 25, 2007, Del Piero leads Serie B scoring with 20 goals (2 by penalty).

Del Piero recently announced that he is going to have a baby with his wife Sonia Del Piero and is looking forward to the 2007 – 2008 season back in Serie A under new coach Claudio Ranieri.

October 16th 2007 Del Piero signed a contract that will bind him to Juventus until June 30th 2010, and October 22th 2007 Alessandro and Sonia celebrated their first child, a baby boy – Tobias Del Piero.

It was a triple celebration for Del Piero, who only hours earlier had scored the winner against Genoa, after a sublime individual performance at the Stadio Olimpico.

This followed the Golden Boy’s signing of a new contract with Juventus after months of fractious negotiations with the club. This turnaround in fortunes for Del Piero was quite staggering, as only two weeks earlier, he was dropped by Claudio Ranieri for the Serie A match with Fiorentina, and was then axed from Roberto Donadoni’s Italy squad for the games with Georgia and South Africa.

Personal life

Del Piero is married to Sonia Amoruso, the two have been together since 1999 and married in 2005. The couple announced in July 2007 that they are expecting their first baby. On October 22, 2007, Amoruso gave birth to baby boy Tobias Del Piero at 0:20 at Sant’Anna hospital in Turin.

Del Piero has used his fame and money to promote and support cancer research in hopes of finding a cure, 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.

When the Olympic Flame for the 2006 Winter Olympics passed through Turin, Del Piero was a torchbearer. He has an interest in sports outside of football 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.

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. Del Piero is an Oasis fan and is a friend of Noel Gallagher. In fact, Del Piero claimed Gallagher was Italy’s lucky mascot in their 2006 World Cup success and invited him to the final and the team hotel after victory. Along with Marco Materazzi, Del Piero appeared on stage at a Rolling Stones show in Milan shortly after Italy’s World Cup win.

Honours

Club

7 Italian Championships: 1994-95, 1996-97, 1997-98, 2001-02, 2002-03, (2004-05, 2005-06 : last two revoked due to Calciopoli scandal)

1 Italian Serie B Championship: 2006-07

4 Italian Super Cups: 1995, 1997, 2002, 2003

1 Coppa Italia: 1994-95

1 UEFA Champions League: 1995-96

3 UEFA Champions League Finalist medals: 1996-97, 1997-98, 2002-03

1 European Supercup: 1996

1 Intercontinental Cup: 1996

1 Intertoto Cup: 1999

1 Torneo di Viareggio: 1994

1 UEFA Cup Finalist medal: 1995

International

2 European Under-21 Football Championships: 1992/94, 1994/96

1 UEFA Euro 2000 Finalist medal

1 FIFA World Cup: 2006

Personal awards

U-21 European Footballer of the Year

MVP of the Intercontinental Final Award 1996

Best Italian Player Award 1998

Best Overall Player Award 1998

UEFA Champions League Top Scorer 1997

UEFA Champions League Top Scorer 1998

Most Popular Italian Player Award

Most Charismatic Striker in Italy 2001

UEFA Champions League 10 Years Jubilee Poll Best Attacker

Pelé named Del Piero in his 125 Top Living Footballers

All-time top scorer for Juventus F.C.

Bravo Award (European Under 23 Footballer of the Year, 1996)

2007 Golden Foot award

Career stats

Here is a comprehensive collection of statistics that map Del Piero’s entire career of official (non friendly) club games. Domestic Games includes league and cup. International cups covers club European games and other non Italian competitions.

“Correct as of 4 May 2007”.