Two months after winning the World Cup, Alessandro Del Piero experienced a humbling reality check. It was September 9, and the mighty Juventus had just drawn 1-1 against 10-man Rimini in front of 10,000 supporters on the Adriatic coast. Kicking off his new campaign in the second tier of Italian football, a 31-year-old Del Piero – a serial winner of seven major trophies by then, including the Champions League – could be forgiven for wondering what kind of alternative universe he’d found himself in.
In the space of a few months, one of the biggest scandals in football history had rocked the game to its core, Italy had become world champions and Del Piero’s beloved Juve were condemned to Serie B. Paradoxically, the lowest point in the attacker’s storied career followed his greatest achievement by a matter of five days.
“There was certainly bewilderment and disbelief at what was happening, but the World Cup made everything more distant, right from the first days of training with the national team in Coverciano,” Del Piero, now 47 and happily enjoying retirement, tells FFT. “I had a goal with my national team-mates – and nothing could distract me.”
Such steely resilience becomes a theme throughout an hour in the Italian’s company. Scandal, height issues, final heartache and injury agony have given Del Piero enough obstacles to hurdle but, every time, he had the last laugh…
PAINT IT, BLUE
Del Piero wasn’t alone in his curious summer of 2006 – fellow Juventus stalwarts Gianluigi Buffon and Mauro Camoranesi were also involved in a national squad full of optimism heading to Germany for the World Cup. In May, the Calciopoli scandal of referee rigging had erupted around them, bringing the Old Lady into disrepute alongside Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina and Reggina. But if anything, that ugly episode served only to bring a tight-knit group closer together.
“I HAD THE WORLD ON MY SHOULDERS. DID I FEEL SORRY TREZEGUET MISSED HIS SPOTKICK? NO, I WAS DELIGHTED”
“From the very beginning we believed that we had a chance of winning,” says Del Piero. “We flew under the
