Throughout the club’s glorious history, countless legends have donned the famous black and white jersey, and even the 50 stars at the Allianz Stadium were not enough to include them all, leaving many undeservedly left out.
Yet one icon managed to shine above the rest with his unparalleled numbers, amazing talent, incredible devotion, and timeless class.
Of course we are talking about Alessandro Del Piero, the man who simply symbolizes Juventus.
The striker arrived in Turin as a young talent in 1993 before leaving as the club’s all-time goalscorer 19 years later.
However, Del Piero never wanted the club to retire his iconic number 10. Instead, Carlos Tevez, Paulo Dybala and Paul Pogba inherited the shirt.
According to Antonio Galimberti, who wrote a book dedicated to the ADP, the 2006 World Cup winner did not want to deprive a child of dreaming of one day wearing the Bianconeri number 10 shirt.
“Del Piero was the first Juventus player to wear the number 10 with his last name on the back,” the author said in an interview with JuventusNews24.
“UEFA imposed the new regulations in the Champions League final that Juve won in 1996.
“He had the number 10 that once belonged to Roberto Baggio, Platini and Sivori, but he was the first to have his last name on the shirt.
At the farewell press conference they asked him if he wanted the club to withdraw his number in memory of Paolo Maldini [Milan number 3] and Diego Maradona [Napoli number 10].
“He answered with a no because every child should dream of being able to use it one day. This also shows the character of a true champion.
“Now he has passed it on to Pogba, but it hasn’t been seen yet this season. I think Juventus may now lack a true number 10 on a technical level.”
