Juventus F.C.

Juventus FC commonly nicknamed Juve is one of the top clubs in the world of football. It is also known by the names of The Old Lady and The Bianconeri. The Italian club has been represented by many of the world’s greatest footballers. Stars that emerged from Juve in recent years are Cristiano Ronaldo, Andrea Pirlo, Giorgio Chiellini, Gianluigi Buffon, Dani Alves, Pavel Nedved, Patrice Evra and Zinedine Zidane. It has been the most successful club domestically in the history of Italian soccer winning 36 Serie A titles by far along with winning the European Cup in 1984/85 and 1985/86. 

 

History of Juventus Football Club

History:

In 1897 Juventus was founded as a sports club by 13 pupils from Massimo d’ Azeglio Lyceum School in Turin. Among them were the two brothers, Enrico and Eugenio Canfari where the former became Juventus’s first-ever President and the latter became an early Italian sports director. Back Then Juventus was renamed the Football Club Juventus two years later and in the 1900s it joined the Italian Championship. In 1904, businessman Ajmone Marsan revived the Juventus football club and was responsible for the transfer of the training ground from Piazza d’ armi to a much better ground Velodrome Umberto I.

The famous black and white jersey of Juventus today was not their initial uniform to start with, in fact, their first uniform in which they played was in the colour pink and black. In 1905 they changed it to black and white which was inspired by the English side football club Notts County FC, in the same year Juventus won their first league title playing at their ground of Velodrome Umberto I. 

Formation and History of Juventus

In 1906 the club went through a bit of internal conflict when some staff members of the club considered moving out of Turin. The President of the club was offended by this consideration and therefore left with some prominent players to create another club FBC Torino ultimately creating the Derby Della Mole. Juventus suffered a lot during this period as they spent much of the period rebuilding the club after the split and then recovering from the aftereffects of WWI. Much later in 1923, the owner of the Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, FIAT company Edoardo Agnelli took over the club and built another stadium for it. This contributed to the club’s second Serie A title win of the 1925-26 season. Until the 1930s Juventus established itself as a successful team within Italian soccer and also got the recognition of Italy’s first professional football club as they went on to win 5 consecutive Italian Championships, 4 of which came under the management of Carlo Carcano. This team under him was an influential one forming a huge part of the Italian national football team during the Victorio Poso era, also including the 1934 FIFA World Cup squad. 

 

Later Juventus moved their ground to Stadio Comunale but during the late 1930s and a full season of the 1940s, they somehow lost their dominance in the field which they had for much of the 1920s. Gianni Agnelli was then appointed as the honorary President of the club after WWII and the club went on to win two league titles in the 1949-50 and 1951-52 seasons. In the 1957-58 season two strikers namely the Welshman John Charles and Italian-Argentine Omar Sivori were bought by the club and that same season the club was awarded the Golden Star to wear on their shirts for their sports excellence. This honour was given to them after they won 10 league titles becoming the first Italian team to do so and in the same season Omar Sivori became the first Italian to win the Ballon O’ dor. The following season too was as good as the previous as the club completed their first league and cup double by winning both Serie A and Coppa Italia. 

Juventus Football Club

In 1961, the then all-time top scorer at the club Giampiero Boniperti retired with an incredible goal-scoring record of 182 goals that stood for 45 years and the rest of the decade the club won the league title just once in the 1966-67 season. But in the 1970s they showed their dominance again by setting their status in Italian football under the former player Cestmir Vycpalek as they won the 1971-72 and 1972-73 Serie A titles with key players like Franco Causio, Roberto Bettega and José Altafini breaking through, however, they only won the league title two times for the rest of the decade with much of the contribution from defender Gaetano Scirea. Juventus under the management of Giovanni Trapattoni won their first major European Cup UEFA in 1977 and continued to have their dominance in the early 1980s too. Moreover, many Juventus players under Trapattoni formed the backbone of the Italian national team meanwhile he and the club went on to win three more league titles by 1984. This led to their winning a total of 20 league titles and therefore receiving another Golden Star for that achievement. During this period Juventus players started to gain more attention.

Formation and History of Juventus

In 1985, Juventus became the first club in the history of European history to win all three major UEFA championships. In 1990 they moved their ground again to Stadio Delle Alpi which was built for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Ahead of the 1994-95 season, the club appointed Marcello Lippi and it was a fruitful decision as his first season as manager was a successful one as he guided them to their first Serie A title since the mid-1980s as well as the Coppa Italia, also led them to the Champions League title triumph the following season. After their European success, the club brought highly talented personalities to the club like Zinedine Zidane, Edgar Davids, and Filippo Inzaghi and together they won the 1996-97 and 1997-98 Serie A titles, the UEFA Super Cup and the 1996 Intercontinental Cup. They also reached the Champions League Final in 1997 and 1998 against Colossal Borussia and Real Madrid respectively. In 2001 Lippi returned to the club after a three-season absence from the club in replacement of Carlo Ancelotti and he led the team to win two more Serie A titles during the seasons of 2001-2003. They were also part of the All-Italian Champions League Final held at Anfield in 2003. They played it against A.C Milan and lost against them on penalties after a draw. Later in 2004 when Lippi was appointed as the coach of the Italian national team Juventus appointed Fabio Capello as their next manager and continued to win more Serie A titles. 

Formation and History of Juventus

Controversies:

In 2006 one of the most controversial scenes in football history occurred and Juventus was directly linked to the scandal. Juventus was one of the 5 clubs associated with the Calciopoli Scandal, where they were accused of match-fixing. Due to this the club was stripped of their 2005 title and the 2006 title was instead given to Inter Milan and Juventus was placed at the bottom of the league title further relegating them to Serie B which resulted in several important players leaving the club but many main players such as Gianluigi Buffon, French footballer David Trezeguet and Czech player Pavel Nedvěd, chose to stay in the club and help in their revival. The youngsters from the youth team were also brought into the main team and together they quickly bounced back to Serie A in the following season with Buffon also gaining fame from his World Cup victory during the same period. 

 

Juventus the Italian Champions

Rise After Fall:

 

In 2007 when they returned to Serie A, Claudio Ranieri was appointed as the manager but was sacked after a very unsuccessful season. He was then replaced by Ciro Ferrera who was also sacked following another unsuccessful season. Alberto Zaccheroni was appointed as the next manager but was only able to lead the club to a 7th-place finish in 2010. Before the 2010-11 season Andrea Agnelli was appointed as the Club President in place of Jean-Claude Blanc, and Agnelli then immediately replaced the sporting director and manager with Giuseppe Marotta and Luigi Delneri respectively. However, Delneri was also unsuccessful in bringing out the best form of the club and was therefore dismissed after which came Juventus fan-favourite Antonio Conte. 

 

In September 2011, Juventus moved to the Allianz Stadium and under Conte, the club reached new heights as they remained unbeaten for the entire 2011-12 season of Serie A winning the title with the best defensive records with only 20 goals conceded. In the 2013-14 season, they won their 3rd consecutive Serie A title with 102 points and 33 wins all total also completing the 30th official League Championship in the Club’s history. In the next season of 2014-15, Massimiliano Allegri was appointed as the club’s manager and during his time he led Juventus to win Serie A titles on a yearly basis and also took the team to two Champions League Finals with two different squads against two of the biggest clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid, however they didn’t win any of those. 

After Juventus’s 7th consecutive Serie A title, the club staked all their money to sign the then Real Madrid Superstar and 5 times Ballon D’or winner Cristiano Ronaldo for €112 million in the hope of winning the Champions League. However, after an 8th consecutive Serie A title win, Massimiliano was sacked due to a disappointing Champions League exit to AFC Ajax. He was replaced by former Napoli and Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri before the 2019-20 season started. But after a 9th Serie A title win, he too was sacked after the club lost against Leon FC in the Champions League round 16, on the same day of his sacking former Juventus player Andrea Pirlo was appointed as the club manager which raised many questions and doubts in the minds of hundreds as Pirlo didn’t have any previous senior managerial experience and the entire season the club was solely dependent on Cristiano Ronaldo for goals. They then lost the Champions League competition against Porto FC. Later in May 2021, Pirlo was sacked from his managerial position and Massimiliano was hired back as the club manager. In the same year, Cristiano Ronaldo too bid Juventus a goodbye after signing up a contract with Manchester United. 

Logo:

 

Juventus have not been consistently changing its logo keeping it original. In 2004 the logo was redesigned, with only slight changes. The black and white strips of the team shirt were replicated in the crest as well. Just above the middle of the crest, the name of the club is written and below that, a crown and a shield with a stallion sketch were instilled. Juventus was also the first club in football to adopt a golden star above the crest. The star was used as a sign for ten league titles. In 2017, Juventus adopted a new logo with a new aesthetic style, which was very different from the traditional crest with the letter ‘J’ in black colour as a prominent sign in the logo.

Juventus Kit

Honours:

Serie A/Italian Champion Winners : 1905, 1925–26, 1930–31, 1931–32, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1949–50, 1951–52, 1957–58, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1966–67, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1976–77, 1977–78, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1983–84, 1985–86, 1994–95, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05,2005–06, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20

Coppa Italia Winners: 1937–38, 1941–42, 1958–59, 1959–60, 1964–65, 1978–79, 1982–83, 1989–90, 1994–95, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2020–21

Supercoppa Italiana Winners: 1995, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020

Serie B Winners: 2006–07

European Champions’ Cup/UEFA Champions League Winners: 1984–85, 1995–96

UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup Winners: 1983–84

UEFA Europa League Winners: 1976–77, 1989–90, 1992–93

UEFA Super Cup Winners: 1984, 1996

Intercontinental Cup Winners: 1985, 1996

References: Wikipedia – Wiki Commons 

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