Alessandro Del Piero

[giorno]

Do you think there was a case for Juve being stripped of their CL win? If i remember rightly the case covered most of the '90s. Of course a lot of it was later overturned so i'm sure it was all just a harmless misunderstanding.

It seemed like half of Serie A tested positive for nandrolone at around that time. I remember a couple of players from one of the smaller clubs claiming it was because they overate during a barbeque. They got banned for a year, but i think all of the bigger names got away with half-season bans at most...Davids, Stam, Couto, Guardiola.

Mmm. On the one hand yes. On the other hand, I don't think their opponents were clean either, juventus just did it better. More than that I think juventus ex players had a strong case for a class action against Agricola and Giraudo

Del Piero, feck, he lost 3 years having to relearn how to play with a non-hulked out body

 

[Gio]

Both Del Piero and Totti won the 2006 WC, but Totti was not in peak condition (was still recovering from an injury) and Del Piero was not in the starting eleven.
They were just ok, didn't really have much of an impact.

To be fair to Totti, he had a very good Euro 2000. Think he was man of the match in the final as well, officially at least, it was probably Henry for me in that game. But agree with your point that Baggio's international career is in a different tier, and his 1994 World Cup is one of the best we've seen from anyone post Maradona.

 

[Sapo84]

I was merely responding to the notion that he “didn’t accomplish much with the national team”. He won the World Cup with them, scoring in the semi final against Germany.

I didn’t say he did more than Baggio or was a better player. I think Baggio was. But the idea Del Piero didn’t accomplish much with the NT is demonstrably wrong.

I mean, he won the world cup, but so did the other 22 players, and many of them did help the team more (or were included in the starting eleven).
And he wasn't his last minute goal that made Italy win the semi (and if you watch that goal Gilardino deserves most of the praise for that fantastic assist).

In the 98 WC he was recovering from an injury and did not perform well, 00 EU Totti did have a bigger impact, in 02 WC and 04 Euro Italy was shit.
I don't think that it's controversial to say that Del Piero was never the brightest star with the NT, if you prefer this wording.

To be fair to Totti, he had a very good Euro 2000. Think he was man of the match in the final as well, officially at least, it was probably Henry for me in that game. But agree with your point that Baggio's international career is in a different tier, and his 1994 World Cup is one of the best we've seen from anyone post Maradona.

Right, I forgot about that, but I really didn't like how Italy played in that WC, the "calcio pane e salame" was hard to watch and restricted classy players. Totti and Del Piero were often subbed in and out of matches.

P.S. Roberto Mancini is a bit underrated these days. In terms of creative passing, technique, artistry and pausa (and operability as a playmaking No. 10), one might argue that he was slightly ahead of Del Piero as well.

I would have loved to see him in a more competitive team internationally. For years he was the best goalscorer in Sampdoria, his finishing ability was good as well.