Alex Del Piero

Biography

Alessandro Del Piero (born November 9, 1974 in Conegliano) is an Italian football player. He usually plays as a forward or between the midfield and the strikers.
Del Piero started his professional career in 1991 with Padova of Italian Serie B. In 1993, he transferred to Juventus, and has been there ever since. With the Turin club, he won the Serie A championship six times (1995, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2005), the Champions League (1996), and the Toyota Cup (1996). His best season was in 1997-98, when he scored 21 goals in Serie A. Del Piero, the Eternal Captain of Juve, is known as Pinturicchio, as Fenomeno Vero, as the Prince... he's adored all over the world as one of the best players ever to play the game.
Despite an amazing amount of success on the club level, Del Piero had some bad luck playing for the Italian national team though he was still brilliant, just unlucky. Coming into the 1998 World Cup with huge expectations, he competed with fan favorite Roberto Baggio for a spot, and had some troubles because of a recent injury. Del Piero then became the scapegoat for Italy's loss in Euro 2000 final, missing a clear-cut chance. Although he was blamed, it wasn't his fault since he only came off the bench very late and wasn't fit. He then played in the 2002 World Cup, and scored a crucial World Cup goal against Mexico, but Italy once again exited early. This was very unfortunate since Del Piero was Italy's best player in the tournament. He scored against Mexico after only a few minutes. He was also Italy's best player against South Korea (in the second round) and was substituted for defensive minded approach by the coach, which cost Italy the tournament. It is widely accepted that Del Piero could have led Italy to the title, because he was "on fire". Del Piero was also one of the best of the Italian national team at Euro 2004. But again defensive minded approach and other factors cost Italy the tournament. After Euro 2004, Del Piero has faced another tough moment after Juventus replaced their Coach Marcello Lippi to Fabio Capello. Capello was not convinced of Del Piero and rather favoured the new signing from Ajax, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Juve captain, however, has fought back and scored 14 goals for the season, leading Juventus to their 28th Scudetto. Del Piero has been one of his country's best players at the turn of the 21st century. As of the end of 2004, he has scored 24 goals in 67 appearances for Italy.