Juventus‘ golden era began with Beppe Marotta at the helm and Football Italia looks at the 65-year-old’s spell in Turin, where he will return on Sunday as the defending Serie A champion.
Juventus appointed Marotta in 2010 after the Bianconeri had finished seventh in the previous campaign under Ciro Ferrara and Alberto Zaccheroni. He joined the Old Lady from Sampdoria, along with Fabio Paratici. The duo tried to replicate the winning formula that had allowed their Sampdoria side to reach a top-four finish in the previous campaign, hiring their coach Luigi Delneri.
The Bianconeri faced another brutal campaign under the ex-Chievo coach finishing seventh again, so Delneri was sacked and Antonio Conte came in to replace him. The Italian tactician moved to Turin in the same summer as Andrea Pirlo (free transfer from Milan) and Arturo Vidal (€10m from Bayer Leverkusen). It was just the beginning of a winning path perfectly shaped by Marotta, who was able to bring in reinforcements in a sustainable way. He was able to replace Conte in a matter of hours when the coach left after one day into the 2014-15 pre-season. Max Allegri replaced him winning Serie A, Coppa Italia and reaching the Champions League Final against Barcelona in his first campaign at the club.
The rest, as they say, is history. Seven Serie A titles on the pitch and many smart deals off it, with negotiations brilliantly led by him and Paratici, his right-hand man, who mainly had scouting duties. Paul Pogba joined the club for free from Manchester United in 2012, returning to Old Trafford four years later for €100m. Sami Khedira, Dani Alves, Patrice Evra, Kingsley Coman and Emre Can all joined the Bianconeri on free transfers through the years.
Carlos Tevez was the first world-class striker to move to Juventus after the Calciopoli era and his 50 goals in 96 games were even more impressive considering that he had joined from Manchester City for just €9m plus €6m add-ons. He played one season with Alvaro Morata, who spent two years at Juventus, and was followed by Mario Mandzukic and Gonzalo Higuain, who completed a shock €90m move from Napoli. Paulo Dybala, now a target of Marotta’s Inter, joined from Palermo for €40m.
Oddly, it was when one of the biggest players of all time – Cristiano Ronaldo – signed for Juventus that Marotta’s time in Turin came to an end. The negotiation with Real Madrid saw Paratici involved in first person and despite never admitting it publicly, Marotta wasn’t too convinced about the operation’s sustainability. Looking backwards, he wasn’t exactly wrong.
Marotta left Juventus by mutual agreement in 2018, days before a shareholders’ meeting. “When I arrived, Andrea Agnelli was a young president, now he is a complete manager, Paratici was a boy,” he said at that time. “The club took their path and when you see that there’s no longer space, it’s correct to take a step back.”
Last year, after leading Inter to win their first Serie A title in 11 years, he revealed one more detail: “I had left Juventus on Saturday and I received a text from Steven Zhang on Sunday morning. I like challenges.”
“My experience with Juventus gave me a lot,” he added in an interview with GR Parlamento.
“I remained on good terms with everyone except for one person, namely Fabio Paratici.”
The now-Tottenham director was appointed chief of the sporting area and remained at the Allianz Stadium until 2021 when he joined Spurs.
I wouldn’t call winning Seria A,
7 times on the trot without any real competition from the other seria A teams who where then quite simply poor and getting stuffed in 2 CL final,
We can see now in the scudetto race what happens when Juve have competition they fail
But hey, maybe that’s why they haven’t won the CL for 27 yrs they are easlily pleased with their achievements but to me it’s not a golden era until they win the most prestigious tournament
Don’t forget he resolved the icardi soap opera as his first act at inter.
@Deluded Pele!
@ Pele we should also take away all of Inter‘s trophies during the post-calciopoli era since they benefited most…Va kurkiti.
Pele – it’s the loser’s excuse to try and downplay Juventus‘ 9 scudetti, by attributing it to other clubs not being good at the time, yet when Inter finally win something in 10 years, it’s a great achievement even though Juve was going through 3 coaches and clearly rebuilding last year and this year. You need to go and see a doctor as soon as possible as it’s clear you have a very nasty disease called envyitus. It affects the brain and makes you talk and write incoherent cr#p.
@pele
😂🤣😆🤭🤪😜😛😝
The truth is Agnelli was focused on football back then. Marotta was the worst decision they made in the last decade and even though Conte made his bed by crossing to Inter, he brought back the grinta. PhD Max deserves zero credit. Forget the 2 CL finals that some like to boast. Fact is they lost to add to the 7/9 hall of shame and Juve got royally spanked in those finals as well. PhD Max took a winning team, got better players or upgrades never given to Conte (remember Vucinic), had no competition and when things are going good nobody points the finger. He made Milan stale after (2013) and is not a builder. Give him City for a week and they would slide down to 4th spot.
@Lord Allegri, Milan sold their best players to manage their wage bill in the year they ended up sacking Allegri, don’t let facts get in the way of your fantasy.
Pele I am Inter fan and have to admit Juve were dominant in that period in Italy. If teams like Inter, Milan, Roma and (you name it) were declining every year in and out because of mismanagement and financial troubles, it was only our beloved clubs fault, nobody else! If Juve managed to secure 9 titles who is really in blame here? Juve or other teams?. You can’t deny they were best Italian club at that time so give credit were it is due. Unlike past 2 or 3 years Juve managed themselves in every front really good. While they were thriving, teams like my beloved Inter were struggling to get even a CL spot let alone Scudetto! Don’t forget they did pretty well in CL too.
Pele, stick with chess or balett, it fits u better. U soundlike a 16 year old girl who wnats to downplay that she is a whore but cant admit the facts. Again play chess or balett
U guys have missed my point my comment was not that June didn’t
deserve the scudetto or they weren’t the best at the time it was thet there achievement was in uncompetitive league and when they did meet any qualityteam m in the CL they failed
So that to me is not an Golden Era a Golden Era is what AC Milan did in 80/90
@Pele Milan won Serie A 5 times in the 80’s &90’s. Juve won 7. So even back then Juve was the best in Serie A
Edit: Milan won 6 times in that period
Samy… mocking people playing chess shows who you really are. To make it clear, chess is a brain game so no wonder why you don’t like it!
Forget chess, Simy needs to work on his basic vocabulary first and foremost.