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 it 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. 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.