I have been reading the forums for quite a while, and am continually enraged by the quite unfair and outrageous slander against Alex. For this reason i have finally been compelled to show Del Piero in a proper light. I will state now that I am a Juventus fan and have been for nearly 17 years, pre Del Piero and Baggio times. I mention Baggio because it is he who Del Piero is most often compared against, not only because Del Piero replaced Baggio at Juventus, but because their playing styles and the way the engaged the fans were similar. Baggio is arguably the greatest Italian player of all time. He is a talent that Italy will probably never be able to reproduce again. Del Piero was simply the man who had the great misfortune of being the player that all Azzuri fans expected to take over from Baggio. Having said that, he is still a player that had an extraordinary amount of talent, who despite a horrendous injury, is a player worthy of our praise and admiration. Nobody will argue with the fact that pre injury, Del Piero was the best player in the world along with Ronaldo. His battle with Roni in the 97/98 Scudetto race is one that will be remembered for years. That season Del Piero scored 21 goals in Serie A, his highest ever tally, assisting most of Pippo Inzaghi's 18 goals, creating the highest scoring Serie A partnership of all time. That season Alex also scored 10 goals in the Champions League, a record in its original format. The Juventus team that lost the Champions League final to Real Madrid that May was clearly missing their inspirational number 10, who missed most of the game through injury. That injury was to hamper his leadup to the World Cup, in which he performed fairly well, creating chances when he came on against Cameroon while setting up Vieri's goal against Austria. Just as he was finding his feet in the tournament, Italy lost to eventual winners France in a penalty shootout. It was after the World Cup that Del Piero was cut down in his prime, snapping all four ligaments in his knee in the last minutes of a game against Udinese. He would be out for almost 9 months recovering, eventually returning without the quickness of feet and mobility he used to have. Considering the extent of his injury, it is unrealistic to think otherwise. He has had to overcome this and adapt to a new style of playing, the fruit of this coming in Juventus' scudetto winning years of 01/02 and 02/03, with Del Piero netting 16 goals in each campaign. The last season and a half Alex has had to overcome more injury issues with his calf injuries hampering his promising start to last year. Back to the Baggio comparison. Del Piero's record for winning trophies is better than Baggio's. He has won 5 Scudetti, 1 Italian Cup, 2 Super Cups, 1 European Cup, Intercontinental Cup and the European Super Cup. Baggio's record here pales into insignificance with only a handful of domestic titles and 1 Uefa Cup to his name. Their goalscoring records provide quite surprising reading however. The 10 years since Del Piero entered the Serie A scence he played 246 games for 100 goals. Baggio played 240 for 101. For such u supposedly underperforming player his record is nearly equal to one of Italy's greatest. Internationally, Del Piero has scored 24 in 67 caps, Baggio 27 in 56. Not too bad for someone who supposedly doesn't perform in an Azzuri shirt. There will be some that will argue that statistics don't mean ********. That Del Piero fails in the big games. Apart from the Euro 2000 final, Alex has actually performed well in major games. He scored in the 97 Champions League final against Dortmund, scored the winner against River in the Intercontinental Cup, while also netting important goals in Champions League semi fianls against Monaco in 97/98 and Real Madrid in 02/03. Internationally he has also scored important goals including the goal against Hungary that put Italy into the 2002 World Cup and also against Mexico to ensure Italy's passage through to the second round in that tournament. Hopefully you will see now that Del Piero is not as bad as some of you may think. He is a player with an impressive record domestiaccly and on the European and World Stage and will be remembered as such: One of Juve's greatest son's, and to date Italy's 6th highest goalscorer of all time.
All this is nice, but the fact is that del Piero never recovered from his injury. Not even close. Name me a big game Alex has performed well in, on top of that. On one hand, its not fair to "blame" him for the injury, but the simple truth is that del Piero has been playing far below the level of fame his name invokes. It has been the same with a very badly off form Raul over the past two years, when Raul has been abysmal, and went almost a year barely scoring in La Liga (let alone his anemic performances for Spain).
Del Piero is still a better than average playas, just like I'm a more thand average drunk. You're full of ******** thoygh delp_whatever when you put down Totti and safdt Del Pirero is god or wahtever. I ditn't evesn bother rading yruor post except the last eenceecne becqaue that's al I nedded to read to ge t the meaningn of your post. Stoooop putting down my boy Totti bitch, as much as I like Del Piero he can't ceom close to Totti;s cill.
If i put down totti its because more than any player he deserves it romagol. He has been overrated to the point where some actually think he is the best player in the world. Totti has absolutely never came up big for Italy and he has never had a big injury to recouperate from. At least when they were saying Del Piero was the best in 98 he actually was the best player in the world. Sure he will probably never get back to the form he was at but sometimes he gets darn close. And sue a game he came up big for was against real Mardrid 2003. Mexico 2002. and on 90 mins he put Juve into the second round of Champs league. No matter what you say about him he gets the job done at the end of the day. Back to Romagol. I know you may not like me putttin down Totti, but you cant say that he hasnt disgraced our country. Earlier this week he gave the finger to the Media. Him and Cassanno are ticking time bombs if you explode them they do stupid things. At least aDel Piero has enough class to say smart things. He may not be the player he was in 1998 but he plays more with his mind now. He uses more skill and tactical work to get the job done, and most of the time it works. Well just have to see how he plays against inter, and Milan and with time im sure hell do good in both those games.
Cassano probably acts the way he does because of totti, he thinks sure if totti can do it, why not me. Cassano needs a teacher to look up to in a way, he's still so young, i think moving cassano to milan would be great for his attidude i'm sure he can learn from shev, pirlo, gattuso, Maldini.
ADP has never recovered, thats the point that Nicephoras was trying to make. Yes, I agree that Del Piero pre-injury set the standard for world best along with Ronnie, but unlike Ronnie ADP was never able to really immitate his former self post injury. Ronaldo (whether or not Inter fans will agree) has made great strides to improve himself sisnce his last injury, and has done so. Winning a World Cup with Brazil and claiming a Spanish League title immediately following his rehabilitation speaks more than what Del Piero has "tried" to do.
Totti is a better spitter then Del Piero, Waht a Moron he is, a Pathetic puke. most over rated player in the world. A world class spiter the puke Totti.
totti and DP are both great players. but they need to come up big when they get called to the NT. there
Sardus Patar can you get a video of Del Piero like that with all od his goals. That would be very nice to see.
ADP might not bee the sheer force he was, but is by no means a shadow out there. he has come through with bg goals, has helped set up many this season. Plus he is an excellent captian as well. Everyone knows this. What I dont always see is why hes such a target? Is it the Juve kit that seems like a target to some people? Hes just a player like everyone else. To me its the boiling point of expectation versus perfomance, both at the club and international level. Hes a damn fine captain! he will keep contributing skill, leadership, and talent for a few more years. As he does future strikers like Zlatan will get even better.
What I dont always see is why hes such a target? Is it the Juve kit that seems like a target to some people? Hes just a player like everyone else. To me its the boiling point of expectation versus perfomance, both at the club and international level. Hes a damn fine captain! he will keep contributing skill, leadership, and talent for a few more years. As he does future strikers like Zlatan will get even better.[/QUOTE] The reason he is a target for the media is because he is captain of Juve and he wears number 10. Those are the most prestige things that anyone can have in a career. Juventus probably the best Italian team of all time and being #10 for them for almost 12 years. Do you know how hard that is. And whether Cappello likes him or doesnt like him he has to play him all the time because of his contributions for Juventus. So to answer recent questions about zlatan-trez when hes back that will never be a starting line up. Thats like asking MOggi to fire Cappello. DO you guys really think that if Angelli was still alive he would let his Il Pinturiccio start on the bench. NEVER!!!!! So no matter what anyone thinks of him whether you think he is finised DEL Piero is Del Piero and i will leave it at that.