Juventus FC

JUVENTUS FC ITALIA - MARCELLO MOSCHEN

Lippi era of success

Alessandro Del Piero, the Juventus all time leading goal scorer, during the 2007–08 season

Marcello Lippi took over as Juventus manager at the start of the 1994–95 campaign.^[3] His first season at the helm of the club was a successful one, as Juventus recorded their first Serie A championship title since the mid-1980s.^[24] The crop of players during this period featured Ciro Ferrara, Roberto Baggio, Gianluca Vialli and a young Alessandro Del Piero. Lippi lead Juventus to the Champions League the following season, beating Ajax on penalties after a 1–1 draw in which Fabrizio Ravanelli scored for Juve.^[32]

The club did not rest long after winning the European Cup, more highly regarded players were brought into the fold in the form of Zinédine Zidane, Filippo Inzaghi and Edgar Davids. At home Juventus won Serie A in 1996–97 and 1997–98, as well as the 1996 UEFA Super Cup^[33] and the 1996 UEFA / CSF Intercontinental Cup.^[34] Juventus reached the 1997 and 1998 Champions League finals during this period, but lost out to Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid respectively.^[35][36]

After a season's absence Lippi returned, signing big name players such as Gianluigi Buffon, David Trézéguet, Pavel Nedvěd and Lilian Thuram, helping the team to two more scudetto titles in the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons.^[24] Juventus were also part of an all Italian Champions League final in 2003 but lost out to Milan on penalties after the game ended in a 0–0 draw. The following year, Lippi was appointed as Italy's head coach, bringing an end to one of the most fruitful managerial spells in Juventus' history.^[28]

Fabio Capello became its coach in 2004, and led Juventus to two more Serie A titles. However, in May 2006, Juventus became one of the five clubs linked to a Serie A match fixing scandal, the result of which saw the club relegated to Serie B for the first time in its history. The club was also stripped of the two titles won under Capello in 2005 and 2006.^[37]

Many key players left following the demotion to Serie B, including Thuram, star striker Zlatan Ibrahimović and defensive stalwart Fabio Cannavaro. However, other big name players such as Buffon, Del Piero and Nedvěd remained to help the club return to Serie A while youngsters from the Primavera such as Sebastian Giovinco and Claudio Marchisio were integrated into the first team. The bianconeri were promoted straight back up as league winners after the 2006–07 season while captain Del Piero claimed the top scorer award with 21 goals. Since their return to Serie A in the 2007–08 season former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri managed Juventus for two seasons.^[38] They finished in 3rd place in their first return season (2007–08) and qualified for the third qualifying round of the 2008–09 Champions League Preliminary stages. They qualified to the group stages, and did very well, beating Real Madrid in both home and away legs, but lost in the knockout round to Chelsea. Claudio Ranieri was sacked following a string of unsuccessful results, and Ciro Ferrara was appointed as the coach for the last two games of the season.^[39] Ferrara was subsequently appointed as the coach for the 2009–10 season.^[40]

Ferrara's stint as Juve head coach proved to be however unsuccessful, with Juve knocked out of UEFA Champions League and Coppa Italia, and just lying on the sixth place in the league table at the end of January 2010, leading to the dismissal of Ciro Ferrara and his replacement with Alberto Zaccheroni. Zaccheroni could not help the side improve as Juventus finished the season in 7th place in Serie A without any trophies. For the 2010–11 season Jean-Claude Blanc was replaced by Andrea Agnelli as club's president. Agnelli's first action was to replace Zaccheroni by former Sampdoria manager Luigi Delneri.^[41]

Juventus' original home colors

Juventus have played in black and white striped shirts, with white shorts, sometimes black shorts since 1903. Originally, they played in pink shirts with a black tie, but only because they had been sent the wrong shirts. The father of one of the players made the earliest shirts, but continual washing faded the colour so much that in 1903 the club sought to replace them.^[42]

Juventus asked one of their team members, Englishman John Savage, if he had any contacts in England who could supply new shirts in a color that would better withstand the elements. He had a friend who lived in Nottingham, who being a Notts County supporter, shipped out the black and white striped shirts to Turin.^[42] Juve have worn the shirts ever since, considering the colors to be aggressive and powerful.^[42]

Juventus Football Club's official emblem has undergone different and small modifications since the 1920s. The last modification of the Old Lady's badge took place before 2004–05 season. At the present time, the emblem of the team is a black-and-white oval shield of a type used by Italian ecclesiastics. It is divided in five vertical stripes: two white stripes and three black stripes, inside which are the following elements; in its upper section, the name of the society superimposed on a white convex section, over golden curvature (gold for honour). The white silhouette of a charging bull is in the lower section of the oval shield, superimposed on a black old French shield; the charging bull is a symbol of the Comune di Torino.

Juventus F.C. crest in 2004

There is also a black silhouette of a mural crown above the black spherical triangle's base is a reminiscence to Augusta Tourinorum, the old city of the Roman era which the present capital of Piedmont region is its cultural heiress.

In the past, the convex section of the emblem had a blue color (another symbol of Turin) and, furthermore, its shape was concave. The old French shield and the mural crown, also in the lower section of the emblem, had a considerably greater size with respect to the present. The two Golden Stars for Sport Excellence were located above the convex and concave section of Juventus' emblem. During the 1980s, the club emblem was the silhouette of a zebra, to both sides of the equide's head, the two golden stars and, above this badge, forming an arc, the club's name.

During its history, the club has acquired a number of nicknames, la Vecchia Signora^[1] (the Old Lady) being the best example. The "old" part of the nickname is a pun on Juventus which means "youth" in Latin.^[5] It was derived from the age of the Juventus star players towards the middle of 1930s. The "lady" part of the nickname is how fans of the club affectionately referred to it before the 1930s. The club is also nicknamed la Fidanzata d'Italia (the Girlfriend of Italy), because over the years it has received a high level of support from Southern Italian immigrant workers (particularly from Naples and Palermo), who arrived in Turin to work for FIAT since the 1930s. Other nicknames include; i bianconeri (the black-and-whites),le zebre (the zebras^[43]) in reference to Juventus' colors and i gobbi (the hunchbacks), because "old ladies" usually have hunched backs.