Book Excerpts

Football is a game of identity. Clubs are instantly recognisable through imagery, icons and by the colours they wear. Before the sport became omnipresent on television and the Internet, where fans were born and grow up supporting their local club, these identities were woven through generations of families and friends. Like many of football's grandest clubs, Juventus can point to the humblest of origins, far removed from the bright lights and multi-millionaire players gracing the sport today.

At the opening of the brand new Juventus Stadium on September 8, 2011, the Bianconeri held a ceremony which perfectly captured that history, and told the story of those early days. The club spared no expense in putting on a spectacular and emotion-laden display, and welcomed their supporters into this bright new dawn. Yet, looking past the hours of rehearsal and choreography, beyond the cheerleaders and former champions, the celebration of past triumphs and remembrance of tragic loss, it would be a moment that cost absolutely nothing which was easily the most priceless memory taken from the evening.

In the midst of all that glamour, noise and excitement, two men – surrounded by thousands of people and with millions more watching on television – sat on a bench and discussed their mutual appreciation of a club that both deeply love. It formed a wonderfully poignant moment, encapsulating everything that is good about Juventus, and indeed the wider landscape of Italian football. One of the two men was instantly recognisable to even the most casual observers of Serie A, the then-Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero, a man who embodies all the virtues of what became known as 'lo stile Juve', the innate style of the club.

A man who spent the majority of his nineteen-year Juventus career letting his feet do the talking would, on this occasion, find the perfect words. Del Piero acknowledged his own place within the club's storied past, as he told those in attendance; "I'm proud of the important pages I have written in our great history. Juve have always been a wonderful painting and a great painting needs a wonderful frame like this."

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More knowledgeable onlookers would have also identified his companion on that bench as the former holder of many of the records that Del Piero has since broken. Before Roberto Baggio, Michel Platini and Gaetano Scirea came to wear the black and white, Giampiero Boniperti brought the club out of the long shadow cast by city rivals Torino. Returning as President after his retirement, he helped Gianni Agnelli construct the team that won the 1985 European Cup, as well as being partially responsible for actually bringing Del Piero to the club. His words were equally heartfelt and met just as rapturously by those gathered as he said "My history with Juventus started on 4 June 1946 and I'm still here 65 years on to hug you fans and remind the current players of a famous sentence: For Juve, winning is not important; it's the only thing that really matters."

That last phrase is one Boniperti has stated many times, and is taken almost as the club maxim by many. As he uttered those words once again, a few well-informed fans may have even gone so far as to recognise where the two legends were seated, and like everything else on this most perfect of nights, the choice was no accident. It was the bench where students from the city's Massimo D'Azeglio school sat all those years ago, hatching a plan to found the now giant club.