Alessandro Del Piero: Juventus' all-time top scorer, who stayed in Serie B

Alessandro Del Piero spent nineteen years at Juventus and became the club's greatest scorer. He did it with a left foot that could curl a free kick over a wall or send a shot into the top corner from the edge of the area, and with a shirt, the number 10, that he refused to see retired when he left.

Gianni Agnelli, the club's former president, compared him to the Renaissance painter Pinturicchio, a student of Raphael, and the nickname stuck. It described an elegance on the ball that made him look more like an artist than a striker.

The numbers

The curve has one tall peak and one deep valley. The peak is 1997–98, the best season of his career. The valley is the next one, and it has a date: 8 November 1998. After that the goals came back in a different rhythm, steady for a decade and then, at the end, tapering with the years.

From Padova to Turin

Scouts first noticed him in 1988, and at 13 he left home to play for the Padova youth side. He reached the first team in 1991–92, made his Serie B debut on 15 March 1992 as a substitute against Messina and scored his first professional goal on 22 November 1992 in a 5–0 win over Ternana. A year later Juventus bought him.

His Serie A debut came on 12 September 1993, off the bench against Foggia. A week later he scored his first goal, again as a substitute, against Reggiana. On his full debut he scored a hat-trick, against Parma.

The first golden years

Juventus won their first scudetto in nine years in 1994–95, and Del Piero was part of it. A year later they won the Champions League, and he scored six goals in the competition. Then they lost the next two finals.

22 May 1996

The final at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome against Ajax finished 1–1 after extra time. Juventus won the penalty shoot-out 4–2. Later that year he scored in the Intercontinental Cup final and was named man of the match.

The following two Champions League finals went the other way. In 1997 Juventus lost 3–1 to Borussia Dortmund, with Del Piero scoring a back-heel goal after coming off the bench. In 1998 they lost 1–0 to Real Madrid, to a goal from Predrag Mijatović on 20 May, and he was not fully fit for the game.

The injury

On 8 November 1998, in the closing minutes of a 2–2 draw with Udinese, he suffered a serious knee injury that kept him out for the rest of the season. He came back with a stronger body and a different game. He had lost some pace and agility, and he used a muscle-strengthening regime to make up for it.

The Del Piero of 1999–2000 was a creator. Under Carlo Ancelotti he made 14 assists, the most in Serie A that season. He was also criticised for not scoring from open play: only one of his nine league goals that year was not a penalty, a header against Parma. A goal drought in 2000–01 ended on 18 February 2001 against Bari.

Calciopoli and Serie B

On 10 January 2006 he became Juventus's all-time leading scorer. That summer the club was caught in the Calciopoli scandal, forcibly relegated and stripped of its two most recent Serie A titles. Several of the big names left. Del Piero, who was captain, stayed.

"I mean we won everything and we're going come back to win everything again."

— Del Piero on his decision to stay after Calciopoli, as reported by CBS Sports (Kickin' It, September 2024)

He finished 2006–07 as Serie B top scorer and Juventus won promotion as champions. Back in Serie A in 2007–08 he was the league's top scorer, the Capocannoniere, and was named Italian Footballer of the Year for the second time.

The trophies

Italy: one final lost, one won

Del Piero made his Italy debut in 1995 and played at six major tournaments. At Euro 2000 he scored the winner against Sweden in the final group game, a left-footed shot into the top corner, and came on as a substitute in the final against France. He missed two gilt-edged chances, both set up by Francesco Totti, and France won 2–1 in extra time with a golden goal from David Trezeguet. The Italian press blamed him.

The 2002 World Cup brought a header against Mexico that put Italy through the group, and an elimination by a golden goal against South Korea. At Euro 2004 he started all three games, captained the side in the win over Bulgaria, and Italy went out on head-to-head results after three teams finished level on five points.

The 2006 semi-final

The World Cup in Germany was his reward. He played five games, made his first start in the round-of-16 win over Australia on 26 June, and came on as a substitute in the semi-final against Germany on 4 July. Italy were still goalless when the game went into extra time, and Del Piero scored in the 121st minute, the second goal of a 2–0 win.

In the final, France drew 1–1 with Italy after extra time. Del Piero scored in the shoot-out, and Italy won their fourth World Cup. He later said it was his childhood dream. His last cap came on 10 September 2008 in a 2–0 win over Georgia in a World Cup qualifier, in which he set up Daniele De Rossi's second goal.

The goodbye

On 18 October 2011 Juventus confirmed that 2011–12 would be his last season. Juventus won the title, their 28th, and he started the final league game on 13 May 2012, a 3–1 win over Atalanta, scoring the second goal after 27 minutes. He made a lap of honour afterwards.

His last match for Juventus was the Coppa Italia final on 20 May 2012, which Napoli won 2–0. He was substituted in the 67th minute for Mirko Vučinić and received a standing ovation from both sets of fans. The club offered to retire the number 10 shirt in his honour. He declined, saying he would never want it retired, so that children could one day dream of wearing it.

Sydney, Delhi and retirement

On 5 September 2012 he signed a two-year deal with Sydney FC. He scored four goals in a 7–1 win over Wellington Phoenix on 19 January 2013 and set the club's record for goals in a season, and won its Golden Boot in the second year. His last match for Sydney was a 2–1 loss to Melbourne Victory in an elimination final on 18 April 2014.

He then played in the Indian Super League for Delhi Dynamos, and in October 2015, after almost a year without a club, he announced his retirement from professional football.

Records

Why he is remembered

He was not the quickest, and after 1998 he was not the player he had been. But Del Piero is remembered for the choices as much as the goals: the club he stayed with, the number he left to others and the way he accepted a place on the bench in the World Cup that Italy won.