Alessandro Del Piero

Born November 9, 1974 in Conegliano.

Alessandro Del Piero used to be the Great Hope of Italian soccer. He continues to be a great player, but it seems that his spark is no longer there. The flashes of genius and goal scoring capabilities seem to have disappeared. He is still a prolific player, but no longer strikes fear into the hearts of opponents like he used to.

Some would say that the turning point in his career was the 2000 European Championship, where he had terrible form for Italy. He was heavily criticized by fans and media back home. He has since shaken off the bitterness of the Euro 2000 experience and returned to form, though still not at 100%.

His nickname is "Pinturicchio", in reference to a joke by Gianni Agnelli when he belittled the emerging Del Piero to the master Roberto Baggio in a parallel between modest painter Pinturicchio from Perugia and the great Raphael.

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 very quickly matured into a more influential role, occupying the pivotal playmaker's position just behind the strikers. It is in this zone that his prowess as a creator of goals came to the fore. His creative abilities and potential were best utilised after Marcello Lippi took over as Juventus coach in the late 1990s. Lippi's incisive coaching acumen and his love for playing the 'trident' in attack led him to give Del Piero increased opportunities to play the free role in a position the Italians like to call the "trequartista" - a different kind of playmaker who plays just behind the strikers, yet not quite in midfield. Del Piero very quickly made this position his own, combining effectively with the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Filippo Inzaghi to form an ultra-creative Juventus strike force. Later on, his partnerships with Pavel Nedved in midfield and David Trezeguet upfront contributed enormously to Juve's continued success in Italy and Europe, as the club conquered two successive Scudettos (in 2002 and 2003) and finished runners-up to AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League (2003).

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 Ibrahimovic However The Juve captain, fought back and scored 14 goals in Serie A that season(Ibrahimovic scored 16), helping Juventus to their 28th Scudetto. However, Fabio Capello is still not convinced of Del Piero's abilities, and leaves him often on the bench.

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.