Juventus: A History in Black and White by Adam Digby

Author:Adam Digby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ockley Books

MAY 5 2002: THE BIRTH OF A NEW RIVALRY

“I hope Juventus win 10-0. The truth is Inter don’t know how to lose & start crying” – Luciano Moggi

Just as they had the season before, Carlo Ancelotti’s Juventus would end the 2000-01 season in second place to a club from Italy’s capital city. Unlike the previous season, there would be no controversy even as they again took the title race to the final day, this time losing out to a highly impressive Roma side led by Francesco Totti, Gabriel Batistuta and coached perfectly by Fabio Capello. Juventus would simply not settle for a runners-up spot and, much as they had when looking to end their title drought a decade earlier, they turned to the man who had previously delivered silverware with incredible regularity.

With echoes of Trapattoni, Marcello Lippi too had left Turin for Inter, where he was unceremoniously fired on the first day of the previous season at a time when the whimsical nature of Massimo Moratti was at its fullest. The club he had left behind once again invested millions to build a talent-laden team to support the seemingly dream front pairing of Christian Vieri and Ronaldo. With Álvaro Recoba and Sérgio Conceição in attack and Marco Materazzi protecting goalkeeper Francesco Toldo, new coach Héctor Cúper had all the tools at his disposal to end the Nerazzurri’s thirteen-year wait for lo Scudetto.

Luciano Moggi would provide Juventus with a surprising summer, not only reappointing Lippi but also selling Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid for a world record fee. With Filippo Inzaghi moving to Milan and Fulham snapping up Edwin Van der Sar, the Director General had more money than ever to reinvest in the squad as he sought to return La Madama to the very top of Italian football.

In order to make clear that they intended to end Rome’s dominance of Serie A before it could truly begin, the Bianconeri would secure the signatures of French defender Lilian Thuram and Lazio’s talismanic midfielder Pavel Nedvěd. Their spending would catch global attention as they handed Parma no less than €45 million to bring Italy’s premier goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, to the club in a deal which was far from easy to complete.

Initially swayed by his friendships with Francesco Totti and Vito Scala, Buffon’s father and agent travelled to speak to the Roma President Franco Sensi, only to discover the capital club were looking to spend less. The Giallorossi opted instead for Ivan Pelizzoli and the player’s representative Silvano Martino would then head to Spain to conclude a deal with Barcelona, the Catalan giants keen to bring Buffon to Camp Nou.

“Then Moggi and the Agnelli family stepped in”, Buffon would remark years later. “I really wanted to win a Scudetto, my father said Juve hadn’t won the title for five years and that they were bound to win it within the next two years”. Heeding his advice led the son to enjoy great success, but his early days in Turin were a far cry from the dominant displays normally associated with Italy’s undisputed number one.

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