Alessandro Del Piero’s 50th birthday between family, business and one regret

The fifty years of Alessandro Del Piero they give us the way to celebrate an extraordinary champion, a number 10 like they once were, 9 November 1974, San VendemianoTreviso, one of the very last football flags capable of linking its name to that of Juventusthe team where he played for 19 years (he arrived in Turin very young, in 1993 and said goodbye to Italian football in 2012, at 38 years old) and accounting for championships, the 1996 Champions League, various other cups, 705 official appearances and 289 goals in all competitions. A symbol, a source of pride, a champion in whom you can recognize yourself. He currently occupies tenth position in the all-time Serie A scorers list with 188 goals, on par with Alberto Gilardino and Giuseppe Signori.

Goal has always been his best friend. Of the goal, Pinturicchio as Lawyer Agnelli had nicknamed him, he made his art. He was born to play football and he did so without ever leaving the confines of education and respect for the game. He fell, he got up again. Scoring has always been easy for him, almost natural. Artist’s brushstrokes that today’s youngest can appreciate on Youtube, artist’s touches that have illuminated the Sundays of Italians for two decades, magic that has remained in the collective imagination that has given – even – the name to a certain way of kicking ball: the Del Piero shot, or rather a returning parabola which in its deceptive trajectory draws a sort of rainbow in the sky.

In the parable of a career that has had extraordinary peaks, in 2006 he became world champion with his teacher Lippi’s Italy on the night of Berlin, and difficult moments related to injuries, the reflection of a regret remained in the background, that of never having won the Ballon d’Or. Del Piero was a home champion, it was he who retraced the path marked by Roberto Baggiobut certainly also appreciated (above all, perhaps) beyond the border: a perfect exponent of Made in Italy. It was a symbol.

Today the world champion Del Piero, was there on the Berlin night of 2006, he lives between Los Angeles and Turin with his wife Sonia and three children, Tobias (17 years old), Dorotea (15 player playing for Juventus Under 17) and Sasha (14), dividing his time between his work as an entrepreneur, in Los Angeles he opened a restaurant, the N10, and that of a commentator for Sky Sport Italia. He plays golf (well).since the summer of 2018 he has been the owner of an amateur club in Los Angeles, LA 10, and together with the actor Patrick Dempsey he founded a car team. And obviously he continues to follow with interest the events of Juventus, a club to which his name, with frequencies marked by corporate upheavals, is associated. But to this day a managerial role, rather mysteriously, has always been denied to him.