Euro 2008 was not to be. After an exceptional 2007-08 season with Juve, Alessandro Del Piero’s Euro campaign finished (once again, alas) with lack of luster. Pinturicchio’s really been unlucky with the Azzurri shirt during his career: ever so much a protagonist at Juve, but never really taking the reins of the Italian national team as he should have. This Euro, his performance record includes two appearances as a substitute (vs. Netherlands and vs. Spain), one match as a starter vs. Romania, and not much else.

At 33 years of age (soon 34), this very well may have been Del Piero’s last important tournament with the Italian national team. Sure there’s the Confederations Cup next year and sure, Marcello Lippi is now back at the helm (he always liked ADP, so who knows… fingers crossed), but odds are that Italian 36 year-old strikers will have to watch World Cup 2010 in front of their TV sets.

Until then, time for Del Piero to enjoy his holiday.

According to Gazzetta and excite.it, the next destination of ADP & family (Sonia and newborn baby Tobias will also come along) will apparently be New York City. Not only that but Christian Panucci, Marco Materazzi, and Marco Amelia are also headed that way so if you live in the area, keep your eyes open. ;]

As for myself, I will be leaving for Italy very soon (Salerno and Marina di Camerota to be precise, two cities south of Naples) so I am afraid that this will the last post on the ADP blog for quite some time. I expect to be back posting (sporadically) around August maybe, and to be back in Canada (with daily full time internet access) around September.

Before I go though, a few words from the man himself at alessandrodelpiero.com:

Dear Friends,

The time to enjoy my holidays came a bit earlier than I expected (one week earlier to be precise).

As usual during the last month I’ve gotten a lot of messages, wishes and congratulations for the football season we played, for my victory as a leading goalscorer in the Serie A and for the European Championship.

Once again I would like to thank you all for you support and affection that you give me, and also to say goodbye. I’ll be away for a few weeks (holiday time is never too long…) but we will keep in touch during this period.

See you soon,

Alessandro

Buone vacanze a tutti!!

P.S. For those who are wondering about that little image above, yes that is indeed Del Piero with (then-girlfriend) Sonia Amoruso. The picture was taken in 2000, during ADP’s post-injury holiday in Miami beach. It’s from the book “Semplicemente Del Piero” published by the photographer Gianni Giansanti, that relives years 1999-2001 (+ some pictures from before too) of Del Piero’s life through plenty of photographs. Pictures that not only portray his life as a footballer (with Juventus and the National Team), but also during his free time, with his family, friends and teammates.

If you get a chance to go to Italy, I highly recommend you buy that book. It’s a must-have for any self-respecting ADP fan! :] Alternatively you may try to buy it online at Libreria dello Sport or La Feltrinelli. The price is €25.00.

My name is Marco Pantanella, and some of you may know me already on the Offside community, since I’ve been regularly posting comments on the Italy and Juventus blogs. I’m 26 years old, and have been a soccer enthusiast pretty much since I started kicking the ball around in my garden, back when I was still a little baby. From then on, enthusiasm became a passion, and passion eventually lead to starting a “career” as blogger and the creation of my mCalcio.com website in July 2007.

During my childhood years, I was fortunate enough to have been exposed to a variety of cultures: born from Italian parents in Germany (1982, the year Italy won the World Cup!!!), I lived in a town called Darmstadt for 8 years before moving to Paris with my folks. I stayed in France until the year 2000, and with my high school diploma in hand decided it was time to move away from the home nest. So I embarked on a plane, crossed the Atlantic, and settled in… Canada! I have been here ever since. 

My dream of becoming a professional soccer player sort of never really took off (Dream? More like wishful thinking…), but I’ve been practicing the beautiful game for as far as can I remember. Over the course of my life, I’ve had the opportunity to play soccer on the fields of Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Canada, and… Martinique.

As a good patriot, I’ve been a vivid follower of Italian soccer throughout the years, but I’ve also kept a keen interest for most of Europe’s top soccer leagues. I became a Juventus fan back in the days of another Italian nº10 legend, which even led me to copy his ‘Divine Pony Tail’ at a point in my life (lame I know… and unfortunately, that’s the only thing I could copy), I am talking of course about Roberto Baggio. One year after the semi-glorious USA 94 World Cup, Roby departed to AC Milan, so it was only natural to shift my affection towards the man who inherited his iconic nº10 jersey. Alessandro Del Piero became my new idol and the rest, as they say, is history.

mCalcio.com as well as the ADP blog you’re reading is the result of my passion for soccer & writing, and an attempt to share this passion with others. I hope you enjoy it! :]

Believe or not, the birth of an Alessandro Del Piero blog could not arrive at a better time. The 2007-08 season has been somewhat special for our nº10 hero (and all Juventini in general), as it marked the return of the Bianconeri to top-flight Italian football (after the year of purgatory in Serie B), and also the continuation of Juve’s rebuilding campaign after the shameful Calciopoli scandal of 2006. This year more than ever, players from La Vecchia Signora were asked to step up to the plate and bring added quality to a team which, after the Summer of 2006, was virtually plundered of some of its best elements (Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Vieira, and Ibrahimovic to name a few). As a result, players like Gianluigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi, Pavel Nedved, and David Trezeguet all remained at the club and helped their team rise from its Serie B ashes, becoming true heroes among Juventini supporters for their testament of faith and devotion to the club.

Above all however, the player who after the Calciopoli scandal displayed the biggest amount of dedication to the Bianconeri jersey, was without a doubt their captain Alessandro Del Piero. Albeit over 30 years of age by then, Juve’s nº10 was a freshly-decorated World Cup Champion with the Azzurri, and could have virtually written his own ticket on several big European clubs. A Bianconero at heart and a true leader on and off the field, Del Piero chose however to stay and guide his team out of hell. And so he did.

The 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons were, arguably, among the best of Alessandro Del Piero’s entire career. There is no doubt the Juventus captain was never quite the same after his injury vs. Udinese in November 1998, and the first few years following that unfortunate accident were very difficult for him. Having seemingly lost “his touch”, a shadow of his former self, some even maintained that Del Piero was “un giocatore finito” (a finished player). Oh what little did they know this “finished player” would, among other things, become World Cup champion with Italy, scoring one of the deciding penalty kicks in the final match vs. France. Yes France, the very same team that had been haunting Del Piero (and all Azzurri fans) ever since that bloody Euro 2000 final and those two missed chances in front of Fabien Barthez…

This season, at 33 years of age Alessandro Del Piero is currently ranked 3^rd of the Serie A topscorer standings, with a total of 18 goals (1 goal behind Marco Borriello and teammate David Trezeguet) and only 3 goals away from his best Serie A season yet (1997-98, 21 goals). These numbers don’t lie people: ADP has been one of Serie A’s best players these past 3 months, and is just on the verge of being called up to Roberto Donadoni’s Azzurri once again (fingers crossed!), because leaving a player in such stunning form home for Euro 2008 would be absolute heresy. And what better way to cap such a great season for Del Piero, than return to the Italian national team as a hero and win Euro 2008?

……..

Ah ADP fans sure can dream… but it would be a deserved accomplishment for our nº10 hero, wouldn’t it? I’d like to think so…