Del Piero

Alessandro Del Piero, Cavaliere (born November 9, 1974 in Conegliano) is an Italian football player. He is the captain of Juventus and a member of the Italian national side. He was a part of the 2006 FIFA World Cup winning side. Usually, Del Piero plays as a support-striker and occasionally between the midfield and the strikers (in the hole), known in Italy as the "Trequartista" position. He is not the tallest of forwards, but is certainly one of the most creative forwards in the world, rather than being a "goal poacher."

Del Piero is renowned for his deadly finishing, and the ease in which he dribbles past defenders. He is an expert in dead-ball situations as he is among the world's best in taking freekicks and penalty kicks. Particularly famous for inside-curling, dipping shot that he takes in the area that is up to 10 yards outside the penalty box, which is known as "La Zona Del Piero" meaning "The Del Piero Zone."

Biography

Alessandro was born in Conegliano, to Bruna, a housekeeper and Gino Del Piero, who was an electrician. Along with his brother Stefano, the family lived at a rural home. He would often play football in the backyard with two friends, Nelso and Pierpaolo. The three of them wanted to become footballers, but only Alessandro would eventually manage to do so.

While growing up, Del Piero recalls that as a youngster there was never any money for travelling abroad and that he wanted to be a lorry driver so he could see places. Later, as a professional football player he was eventually able to travel all around the world.

Club Football

Del Piero was first spotted playing for hometown San Vendemiano — he left home at the age of 16 to start his professional career in 1991 with Padova of Italian Serie B. 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 six times (1995, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005), 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 Caravaggio. He's also been nicknamed by the fans "Il Fenomeno Vero" meaning the true, 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 more 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 Nedvěd in midfield and David Trézéguet upfront has contributed enormously to Juve's continued success in Italy and Europe. Del Piero is currently the all-time top scorer for Juventus F.C. Del Piero also made is 500th appearance with Juventus in January '07. International: World Cup Winner Despite huge success on the club level, Del Piero in the past has somewhat disappointed playing for the Italian national team, although he is currently the national teams all-time 4th topscorer. 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 Ibrahimović. 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 assist against AC Milan. 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; first as a substitute late in game 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. 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, scored Italy's second goal. On a fast break while Germany were on the ascendancy, Alessandro Del Piero scored that goal for Italy with Alberto Gilardino perfectly backheeling the ball into Del Piero's path. Del Piero confidently stroked the ball over Jens Lehmann. In doing so, he ended hopes of a last minute comeback by Germany. This goal was chosen as one of the best in the tournament.

In the final, Del Piero scored the fourth penalty kick of the World Cup 2006, helping 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.

Trivia

* His brother Stefano, who is nine years older and briefly played football for Sampdoria before injury struck him. Alessandro's father Gino, died in February 2001.

* He once said that he 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 smaller. But one day, Stefano told their mother: "Don't you see that Alex is good in the attack?"

* Sonia Amoruso is Del Piero's wife. Alex and Sonia have been together since 1999 and eventually married in 2005.

* Del Piero was once the world's best paid player from salary, bonuses and advertising revenue. [25]

* Del Piero is into other sports and also into music. He has even released some music CDs himself.

* Del Piero is regarded also for his character off and on the pitch. He has won several awards such as the "'Coppa d'Argento' Premio Speciale Gentleman" , the "San Siro Gentleman Serie A TIM". and the Associazione Soomaaliya Special Award for Fairness which is assigned to the persons who with their silence have not been arrogant, aggressive or violent

* Del Piero is known for his sense of humour. He once joked that if Lippi does not convoke him to the World Cup in Germany, he will "run him over with his car and sink his damn boat".

* 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.

* Del Piero was rated 10/10 in 1996 after leading Juventus to the championship title UEFA Champions League and the Italian Championship title.

* Del Piero was a 2006 Winter Olympics Torchbearer in Turin.

* He is considered to have a strong bond with the fans; "I'm proud to be a Juventino, to be a "bandiera", like you define me to be often, in reality I'm just a small part of a big black & white "bandiera" (flag) that grows with the years and if you look closely your name is part of it... To continue making this "bandiera" grow we need everybody: let's stay united."

* Del Piero is an Oasis fan and has a good relationship with 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.

* He appeared in a Rolling Stones Concert in Milan in 2006 together with Marco Materazzi, following Italy's World Cup victory.

* Famous sport icons such as NBA star Steve Nash and cycling legend Eddy Merckx stated that they are fans of Del Piero.

* In November 2006 Del Piero received the Airc prize "Believe in Research" for having done a great deal to promote and support the research in the cure for cancer.