Alessandrodelpiero.com the official website

Thirty four out of thirty four

The return to the pitch after the injury, unfortunately didn’t overlap the period of return to victories. I came back to the Juventus, that was fighting to conquer the place in Europe through the Intertoto, and without Marcello Lippi on the bench. His place was taken by Carlo Ancelotti in February 1999. During my long break, for the second time since 1993, I renewed my contract with Juventus. That was a wonderful sign of trust on the part of the society. Coming back after a long period of being out at the edge almost for a season, is not easy to take up everything immediately and soon I understood that everything I had done before didn’t count. I had to start playing again. On my side I had a coach, that strongly believed in me, sometimes even against all odds. I have a wonderful memories of Carlo Ancelotti, both a coach and a man. I’m sorry for not being able to say that I won something with him during that period, but we came close. Our team and scudetto were separated only by the power of downpour in Perugia. I wrapped up that Championship with 34 presences out of 34, the only regular player, having scored nine goals, one of them in action.
That how I came to the European Championship in 2000. The ct was Zoff, with him we got to the end, beating up even the Holland home team, in the remarkable final, where we resisted their attacks for 120 minutes, and the most of this time we played in 10 against 11. Also in this case, the victory managed to escape, right at the moment when we were sure to have it in the pocket, 30 seconds away from the final whistle. In the extra time Trezeguet scored his golden goal. I ended up on the ground, hands on the face, steady gaze… I remember Zidane who hugged me to comfort me, while I was thinking of the occasions I had during the game.
At the end of the match I blamed only myself. Not willing to hear it from somebody else, I said it was all my fault. I was the target of the major part of critics, so I put up my hands and gave myself in, but highlighting that :’ There’s a lot of bad faith toward me, somebody is prejudiced’ If only I could go back in time, I would change it all. I love to think back and hear some voices out of the choir of that period, that made it easier for me. For example Ancelotti: ’His great personality, and his great character, will become the arms he’ll use to deny all critics, that have rained on him without any solid reason.’ Or the one of Arrigo Sacchi, my first ct: ’Del Piero can’t become the whipping boy of Italy. He is the fortune of all of us and of the world sport.’
And at last, the opinion of ‘my’ president Boniperti: ’Alessandro isn’t 40, there’s still time to get rid of heavy thoughts. In order to hurt Juve, they attacked him. I went through this situation as well, that’s why I used to go out on the pitch alone, during the warming up, and take all the insults. I was more or less like lightning rod. The real champions know how to wait.’ In spite of the first nickname, Pinturicchio, he gave me, Mr. Agnelli, temporary renamed me in Godot. Some of his remarks were rather stingy, and they served to stimulate me. I’m happy I didn’t have ‘to wait’ long.
Talking about the waiting periods.. The one to come back to victory didn’t arrive not even in the 2000/2001. We came second again, following Rome, just with a point of difference, and in Champions in fact we didn’t show the brilliant performance. For me it was the ups- and -downs season. I remember that in one of the interviews, I admitted that those “downs” lasted quite long and ignoring them and trying to escape, wouldn’t have helped me to get out of a difficult period.. There was something special to be found, some kind of mental relief. I managed to do it at the moment when I felt that everything was somehow changing. The symbolic image of that moment is the goal I scored in the match against Bari, one of the best goals in my whole career. It happened on the 18th of February, five days before my father Gino died, the day I lived through the most excruciating pain I’ve ever had in my life. A bit later, I understood that this event was the real reason of the changes around me. I found myself in front of the fact that upset me and made me feel helpless. But, unfortunately, there was nothing to do. But on the other hand, I noticed, that everything bad that had come up my way – critics, pressures, everything heavy and tough I had to support- was disappearing. It was just necessary to evaluate all things, to understand what was really important, what was profound and deep and of a great value……