Alessandro Del Piero says it was “genuinely emotional” to be inducted into Italian football’s Hall of Fame yesterday.
The Juventus legend, who won the World Cup with Italy in 2006, was admitted yesterday in a ceremony in Florence, and he reflected on the day on his official website.
“When I arrived at Coverciano for the lunch that preceded the ceremony for the entrance to the FIGC’s Italian football Hall of Fame, I reflected of how I dreamed with those two shirts: one black and white, the other blue,” Del Piero wrote.
Alessandro Del Piero says it was “genuinely emotional” to be inducted into Italian football’s Hall of Fame yesterday.
The Juventus legend, who won the World Cup with Italy in 2006, was admitted yesterday in a ceremony in Florence, and he reflected on the day on his official website.
“When I arrived at Coverciano for the lunch that preceded the ceremony for the entrance to the FIGC’s Italian football Hall of Fame, I reflected of how I dreamed with those two shirts: one black and white, the other blue,” Del Piero wrote.
“They represented and will always represent my life as a sportsman, a fan, a man with a passion for this sport.
“I was just a kid when I participated in my first training camp for the Under-16 national team, and I didn’t leave again for almost 20 years.
“I always saw the chance to represent my country as an extraordinary privilege, and to see those places that I’ve visited so often, to read my name alongside the many giants in the history of football who grace the Hall of Fame, was genuinely emotional.
“I’m very proud of the recognition that the jury wanted to pay me yesterday, along with Osvaldo Bagnoli, Ruud Gullit, Elisabetta Vignotto, Sergio Campana and Bruno Conti, a world champion like me, which can only be considered the highest point in the career of anyone who has the honour of raising that trophy up to the sky.
“The ceremony was touching, especially the ‘In Memoriam’ awards to Renato Dall’Ara, Arpad Weisz, Italo Allodi, and the referee Stefano Farina. And, of course, the memory of Davide Astori, there in his Florence.
“In the first row of the stalls, in the breathtaking setting of the 500-seater hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, there were a lot of young people, many of whom wouldn’t have personally experienced the stories of the Hall of Fame champions, those present yesterday and those celebrated in the football museum at Coverciano.
“Yet in their eyes was the thrill of being part of this path, because that’s the beauty of football too: the stories that are handed down, the heritage that passes from one generation to the next, with the same passion for our game.
“When the reasons for my entry into the Hall of Fame were read out, I thought back to when I was one of them. And I felt a strong emotion.”