Juventus Football Club (BIT: JUVE) (from Latin iuventus: youth, pronounced [juˈvɛntus]), commonly referred to as Juventus and familiarly as Juve, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont. The club was founded in 1897 and have spent their entire history, with the exception of the 2006–07 season, in the top flight First Division (since 1929, called Serie A).
Juventus is the most successful team in the history of Italian football. Overall, the club have won 51 official trophies, more than any other team in the country; 40 in Italy, which is also a record, and 11 in European and world competitions. The Old Lady is the third most successful club in Europe and the sixth in the world with the most international titles officially recognised by one of the six continental football confederations and FIFA.
The club was the first Italian and Southern European side to win the UEFA Cup. In 1985, Juventus, the only team in the world to have won all official international cups and championships became the first club in the history of European football to have won all three major UEFA club competitions.
In Italy, Juventus is the club which has the biggest fan base, having also one of the largest numbers of supporters in the world, with a total of 170 million Juventus's supporters (it. tifosi) worldwide. The club is a founding member of the European Club Association, which was formed after the dissolution of the G-14, a collection of Europe's most elite clubs. The Torinese side is also recognized for its contribution to the Italian national team.
At present, the bianconeri play their home games at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino. The stadium which the club owns, Stadio delle Alpi is undergoing long-term structural changes and will not be completed for use until 2011.
Juventus were founded as Sport Club Juventus in late 1897 by pupils from the Massimo D'Azeglio Lyceum school in Turin, but were renamed as Foot-Ball Club Juventus two years later. The club joined the Italian Football Championship during 1900, wearing their original pink and black kit. Juventus first won the league championship in 1905 while playing at their Velodromo Umberto I ground and wearing their famous black and white stripes inspired by English side Notts County.
There was a split at the club in 1906, after some of the staff considered moving Juve out of Turin. President Alfredo Dick was unhappy with this and left with some prominent players to found FBC Torino which in turn spawned the Derby della Mole. Juventus spent much of this period steadily rebuilding after the split, surviving the First World War.
Fiat owner Edoardo Agnelli gained control of the club in 1923, building a new stadium. This helped the club to their second league championship by the 1925–26 season beating Alba Roma with an aggregate score of 12–1, Antonio Vojak's goals were essential that season. The 1930s proved to be even more fruitful, the club won five consecutive league titles from 1930 through to 1935, most were under coach Carlo Carcano with star players such as Raimundo Orsi, Luigi Bertolini, Giovanni Ferrari and Luis Monti amongst others.
Juventus had a new ground in the form of the Stadio Comunale, though for the rest of the 1930s and the majority of the 1940s they were unable to recapture championship dominance.
After the Second World War, Gianni Agnelli was put in place as honorary president. The club added two more scudetto championship's to their name in the 1949–50 and 1951–52 seasons, the latter of which was under the management of Englishman Jesse Carver.
Two new strikers were signed during 1957–58, in the form of Welshman John Charles and Italo-Argentine Omar Sivori, playing alongside longtime member Giampiero Boniperti. That season saw Juventus awarded with the Golden Star for Sport Excellence to wear on their shirt after becoming the first Italian side to win ten league titles. In the same season, Omar Sivori became the first ever player at the club to win the European Footballer of the Year. The following season they beat Fiorentina to complete their first league and cup double, winning Serie A and Coppa Italia. Boniperti retired in 1961 as the all-time top scorer at the club, with 182 goals in all competitions; a club record which would last for 45 years.
For the rest of the decade the club won the league just once more in 1966–67, However, the 1970s would see Juventus further solidify their strong position in Italian football. Under former player Čestmír Vycpálek they won the scudetto in 1971–72 and 1972–73, with players such as Roberto Bettega, Franco Causio and José Altafini breaking through. During the rest of the decade they won the league two more times, with defender Gaetano Scirea contributing significantly. The latter of which was won under Giovanni Trapattoni, the man who would help the club's domination continue on in the early part of the 1980s.
The Trapattoni-era was highly successful in the 1980s, the Old Lady started the decade off well, winning the league title three more times by 1984. This meant Juventus had won 20 Italian league titles and were allowed to add a second golden star to their shirt, thus becoming the only Italian club to achieve this. Around this time the club's players were garnering attention on a large scale; Paolo Rossi was made European Footballer of the Year and had led Italy to victory in the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
Frenchman Michel Platini was also awarded the European Footballer of the Year title for three years in a row; 1983, 1984 and 1985, which is a record. Juventus are the only club to have players from their club winning the award in four consecutive years. Indeed it was Platini who scored the winning goal in the 1985 European Cup final against Liverpool, however this was marred by a tragedy which would change European football; the Heysel Stadium disaster, in which 39 people (mostly Juventus fans) were killed by the stadium wall collapsing when Liverpool supporters rioted, it has been named "the darkest hour in the history of the UEFA competitions" and resulted in the banning of all English clubs from European competition.
With the exception of winning the closely contested Italian Championship of 1985–86, the rest of the 1980s were not very successful for the club. As well as having to contend with Diego Maradona's Napoli, both of the Milanese clubs Milan and Internazionale won Italian championships. In 1990, Juventus moved into their new home; Stadio delle Alpi which was built for the 1990 World Cup.
Marcello Lippi took over as Juventus manager at the start of the 1994–95 campaign. His first season at the helm of the club was a successful one, as Juventus recorded their first Serie A championship title since the mid-1980s. The crop of players during this period featured Ciro Ferrara, Roberto Baggio, Gianluca Vialli and a young Alessandro Del Piero. Lippi lead Juventus to the Champions League the following season, beating Ajax on penalties after a 1–1 draw in which Fabrizio Ravanelli scored for Juve.
The club did not rest long after winning the European Cup, more highly regarded players were brought into the fold in the form of Zinédine Zidane, Filippo Inzaghi and Edgar Davids. At home Juventus won Serie A in 1996–97 and 1997–98, as well as the 1996 European Super Cup. Juventus reached the 1997 and 1998 Champions League finals during this period, but lost out to Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid respectively.
After leaving for a brief season, Lippi returned, signing big name players such as Gianluigi Buffon, David Trézéguet, Pavel Nedvěd and Lilian Thuram, helping the team to two more scudetto titles in the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons. Juventus were also part of an all Italian Champions League final in 2003 but lost out to Milan on penalties after the game ended in a 0–0 draw. The following year, Lippi was appointed as Italy's head coach, bringing an end to one of the most fruitful managerial spells in Juventus' history.
Fabio Capello became manager of Juventus in 2004, and lead Juventus to two more Serie A titles. However, in May 2006, Juventus became one of the five clubs linked to a Serie A match fixing scandal, the result of the which saw the club relegated to Serie B for the first time in their history. The club was also stripped of the two titles won under Capello in 2005 and 2006.
Many key players left following the demotion to Serie B, including Thuram, star striker Zlatan Ibrahimović and defensive stalwart Fabio Cannavaro. However, other big name players remained to help the club return to Serie A. The season was notable because Alessandro Del Piero broke a club record by becoming the first Juventus player to appear 500 times in all competitions for the club. The bianconeri were promoted straight back up as league winners after the 2006–07 season. Since their return to Serie A in the 2007-08 season former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri managed Juventus for two seasons. They finished in 3rd place in their first return season (2007/2008) and qualified for the third qualifying round of the 2008/2009 Champions League Preliminary stages. They qualified to the group stages,and did very well,beating Real Madrid in both home and away legs,but lost in the knockout round against Chelsea F.C.. Claudio Ranieri was sacked following a string of unsuccessful results and Ciro Ferrara was appointed as the coach for the last two games in the season. Later on, Ferrara was appointed as the coach for the 2009/2010 season.
Juventus have played in black and white striped shirts, with white shorts, sometimes black shorts since 1903. Originally, they played in pink shirts with a black tie, which only occurred due to the wrong shirts being sent to them, the father of one of the players made the earliest shirts, but continual washing faded the color so much that in 1903 the club sought to replace them.
Juventus asked one of their team members, Englishman John Savage, if he had any contacts in England who could supply new shirts in a color that would better withstand the elements. He had a friend who lived in Nottingham, who being a Notts County supporter, shipped out the black and white striped shirts to Turin.
Juventus Football Club's official emblem has undergone different and small modifications since the second decade of the twentieth century. The last modification of the Old Lady's badge took place before 2004–05 season. At the present time, the emblem of the team is conformed to a black-and-white oval shield; a type of Italian shield specially used by ecclesiastics, it is divided in five vertical stripes: two white stripes and three black stripes, inside of this are the following elements; in its upper section, the name of the society superimposed on a white convex section, over golden curvature (gold for honour). The white silhouette of a charging bull is in the lower section of the oval shield, superimposed on a black old French shield; the charging bull is a symbol of the Comune di Torino.
There is also a black silhouette of a mural crown above the black spherical triangle's base is a reminiscence to "Augusta Tourinorum", the old city of the Roman era which the present capital of Piedmont region is its cultural heiress.
In the past, the convex section of the emblem had a blue color (another symbol of Turin) and, furthermore, its shape was concave. The old French shield and the mural crown, also in the lower section of the emblem, had a considerably greater size with respect to the present. The two Golden Stars for Sport Excellence were located above the convex & concave section of Juventus' emblem. During the 1980s, the club emblem was the silhouette of a zebra, to both sides of the equide's head, the two golden stars and, above this badge, forming an arc, the clubs name.
During its history, the club has acquired a number of nicknames, la Vecchia Signora (the Old Lady) being the best example. The "old" part of the nickname is a pun on Juventus which means "youth" in Latin. It was derived from the age of the Juventus' star players towards the middle of 1930s. The "lady" part of the nickname is what fans of the club referred to it as affectionately prior to the 1930s. The club is also nicknamed la Fidanzata d'Italia (the Girlfriend of Italy), because over the years they have received a high level of support from Southern Italian immigrant workers (particularly from Naples and Palermo), who arrived in Turin to work for Fiat since the 1930s. Other nicknames include; i bianconeri (the black-and-whites) and le zebre (the zebras ) in reference to Juventus' colors.
After the first two years (1897 and 1898) in which Juventus played the Parco del Valentino and Parco Cittadella, the matches took place internal Piazza d'Armi Stadium until 1908, except in 1905, the first year of the scudetto, and in 1906, years in which it played quickly Corso Re Umberto.
Later, from 1909 to 1922, Juventus played its internal competitions at Corso Sebastopoli Camp, and then move from the following year until 1933 to Corso Marsiglia Camp, where he won four league titles. At the end of 1933 began to play the new stadium Benito Mussolini (former Stadio Comunale Vittorio Pozzo and finally Stadio Olimpico di Torino), inaugurated in view of the 1934 World Championships. In that stage played 890 league matches for 57 years until 1990. Even then continued to train at this stage, until the City of Turin, in 15 July 2003, gave him a royalty-free basis to Turin, giving the same "Delle Alpi" to the company.
Beginning in 1990 and until the 2005-06 season, the Torinese side has contested all home matches at Stadio Delle Alpi, which was built during the World Cup Italy 1990, although in very rare circumstances, the club instead played some home games in other stadia such as Renzo Barbera at Palermo, Dino Manuzzi at Cesena and the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza at Milan.
In August 2006, the bianconeri returned to play in the Stadio Comunale, now with the stage name of Stadio Olimpico, after the restructuring of Stadio Delle Alpi during the Winter Olympic Games.
In November 2008 Juventus announced that they will invest around €100 million to build a new stadium on the site of the old Delle Alpi ground. Featuring a shopping complex, the facility will be ultra-modern, secure and open seven days a week. Unlike the Delle Alpi there won't be a running track, instead the pitch will only be 8.5 meters away from the stands.
The new stadium will hold 40,700 fans and there will be 120 executive boxes. A shopping area as well as parking for 5,300 vehicles. A Juventus museum is also planned. Naming rights have been snapped up by sports marketing company Sportfive and they will be responsible for coming up with a title. Work is set to begin during Spring 2009 and everything completed for the start of the 2011/12 season.
Juventus is the most well supported football club in Italy with over 12 million fans (32.5% of Italian football fans), according to an August 2008 research by Italian newspaper La Repubblica, as well as one of the most supported football clubs in the world, with approximately 170 million supporters (43 million of them in Europe alone), particularly in the Mediterranean countries, to which a large among of Italian diaspora have emigrated. The Old Lady has fan clubs all over the world outside the country, from places as far apart as Canada, United States, Malta, San Marino, England, Iran, Greece, Israel, Vietnam, Malaysia,India, Australia, Albania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Macedonia, Uruguay and many more.
Despite this strong support, attendances at Juventus home matches average about 22,000, much less than many other highly renowned European teams. Contrastingly, demand for Juventus tickets in occasional home games held away from Turin is high; suggesting that Juventus have stronger support in other parts of the country. Juve is widely and especially popular throughout mainland Southern Italy and Sicily, leading the team to have one of the largest followings in its away matches, more than in Turin itself.
Juventus ultras have good relationships with Piacenza, Den Haag and Legia Warsaw fans and have several rivalries, three of which are highly significant. The first is with local club Torino, they compete in the Derby della Mole (Derby of Torino) together; this rivalry dates back to 1906 when Torino was founded by former Juve members. The other most significant rivalry is with Internazionale; matches between Juventus and Inter are referred to as the Derby d'Italia (Derby of Italy). Up until the 2006 Serie A match-fixing scandal, which saw Juventus relegated, the two were the only Italian clubs to have never played below Serie A. Notably the two sides are the first and the second most supported clubs in Italy and the rivalry has intensified since the later part of the 1990s; reaching its highest levels ever post-Calciopoli, with the return of Juventus to Serie A. They also have rivalries with Roma and Fiorentina.
Historically, Juventus is Italy's most successful team, having won a total of 40 trophies, and one of the most prestigious football clubs in the world, having won a total of 11 official international trophies -with a record of 9 UEFA competition titles and 2 World-wide titles won-, making them the third most winning team in Europe and sixth in the world for official international club competitions won, all recognized by Union of European Football Association, one of the six continental football confederations, and International Federation of Association Football.
Juventus have won the Italian League Championship a record twenty-seven times. and have the record of consecutive triumphs in the football's premier club competition (5, since 1930–31 season to 1934–35 season). They have also won the Italian Cup nine times, holding the record number of wins -overall and consecutives- for the latter.
The Old Lady has earned the distinction of being allowed to wear a two Golden Stars for Sport Excellence (it. Stelle d'Oro al Merito Sportivo) on its shirt representing the league's victories of the bianconeri: the tenth, achieved during the 1957–58 season and the twentieth, in 1981–82 season. Also, Juventus is the only Italian team has achieved two times the national double (winning the Italian top tier division and the national cup competition in the same season), in 1959–60 and 1994–95 seasons.
Juventus, the only football club in the world to have won all official international cups and championships, has received, in recognition to win the three major European club competitions, as first case in the history of the European football, The UEFA Plaque by the Union of European Football Associations in 1987. They have won the UEFA Cup three times, which is a joint record they share with Liverpool and Internazionale.
The Torinese side was placed 7th -and first between all Italian clubs- in the FIFA Clubs of the 20th Century's selection on 23 December 2000.
Juventus has been proclaimed World's Club Team of the Year twice (1993 and 1996) and was ranked in the 3th place -and first between all Italian clubs- in the All-Time Club World Ranking (1991-2008 period) by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.
Alessandro Del Piero holds Juventus' official appearance record (600 as of 10 May 2009). He took over from Gaetano Scirea on 6 March 2008 against Palermo. Giampiero Boniperti holds the record for Lega Calcio Serie A appearances with 444.
Including all official competitions, Alessandro Del Piero is the all-time leading goalscorer for Juventus, with 241 goals -as of 19 May 2008- since joining the club in 1993. Giampiero Boniperti, who was the all-time topscorer since 1961 comes in second in all competitions with 182, but is still the top league goalscorer for the Old Lady as of June 2007[update].
In the 1933–34 season, Felice Placido Borel II° scored 31 goals in 34 appearances, setting the club record for Serie A goals in a single season. Ferenc Hirzer is the club's highest scorer in a single season with 35 goals in 26 appearances in the 1925–26 season (record of Italian football). The most goals scored by a player in a single match is 6, which is also an Italian record. This was achieved by Omar Enrique Sivori in a game against Internazionale in the 1960–61 season.
The first ever official game participated in by Juventus was in the Third Federal Football Championship, the predecessor of Serie A, against Torinese; Juve lost 0–1. The biggest ever victory recorded by Juventus was 15–0 against Cento, in the second round of the Coppa Italia in the 1926–27 season. In terms of the league; Fiorentina and Fiumana were famously on the end of the Old Lady's biggest championship wins, both were beaten 11–0 and were recorded in the 1928–29 season. Juventus' heaviest championship defeats came during the 1911–12 and 1912–13 seasons; they were against Milan in 1912 (1–8) and Torino in 1913 (0–8).
The Old Lady holds the record for the most goals in a single season, in the top flight of Italian football, this includes national league, national cup and European competition, with a total of 106 goals in the 1992–93 season. The sale of Zinédine Zidane to Real Madrid of Spain from Juventus in 2001, set the current world football transfer record for the most expensive deal, costing the Spanish club around £46 million.
Overall, Juventus is the club that has contributed the most players to the Italian national team in history, they are the only Italian club that has contributed players to every Italian national teams since the 2nd FIFA World Cup. Juventus have contributed numerous players to Italy's World Cup campaigns, these successful periods principally have coincided with two golden ages of the Turin club's history, referred as Il Quinquennio d'Oro (The Golden Quinquennium), from 1931 until 1935, and Il Ciclo Leggendario (The Legendary Cycle), from 1972 to 1986.
Below are a list of Juventus players who represented the Italian national team during World Cup winning tournaments;
* 1934 FIFA World Cup (9); Gianpiero Combi, Virginio Rosetta, Luigi Bertolini, Felice Borel IIº, Umberto Caligaris, Giovanni Ferrari, Luis Monti, Raimundo Orsi and Mario Varglien Iº
* 1938 FIFA World Cup (2); Alfredo Foni and Pietro Rava
* 1982 FIFA World Cup (6); Dino Zoff, Antonio Cabrini, Claudio Gentile, Paolo Rossi, Gaetano Scirea and Marco Tardelli
* 2006 FIFA World Cup (5); Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi, Alessandro Del Piero and Gianluca Zambrotta
Two Juventus players have won the golden boot award at the World Cup with Italy; Paolo Rossi in 1982 and Salvatore Schillaci in 1990. As well as contributing to Italy's World Cup winning sides, two Juventus players Alfredo Foni and Pietro Rava, represented Italy in the gold medal winning squad at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Three bianconeri players represented their nation during the 1968 European Football Championship win for Italy; Sandro Salvadore, Ernesto Càstano and Giancarlo Bercellino.
Juventus have also contributed to a lesser degree to the national sides of other nations. Zinédine Zidane and captain Didier Deschamps were Juventus players when they won the 1998 World Cup with France, making the total number of Juventus World Cup winners 24, more than any other club around the world (three other players in the 1998 squad, Patrick Vieira, David Trézéguet and Lilian Thuram have all played for Juventus at one time or another). Three Juventus players have also won the European Football Championship with a nation other than Italy, Luis del Sol won it in 1964 with Spain, while the Frenchmen Michel Platini and Zidane won the competition in 1984 and 2000 respectively.
Since 27 June 1967 Juventus Football Club has been a joint stock company (Società per Azioni in Italian language) and since 3 December 2001 the torinese side is listed on the Borsa Italiana. Currently, the Juventus' shares are distributed between 60% to IFIL Investments S.p.A, the Agnelli family's holding (a company of the Giovanni Agnelli & C.S.a.p.a Group), 7.5% to Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Co. and 32.5% to other shareholders.
Along with Lazio and Roma, the Old Lady is one of only three Italian clubs quotated in Borsa Italiana (Italian stock exchange). According to The Football Money League published by consultants Deloitte, in the season 2005–06, Juventus was the third highest earning football club in the world with an estimated revenue of €251.2 million.
Juventus is the most successful team in the history of Italian football. Overall, the club have won 51 official trophies, more than any other team in the country; 40 in Italy, which is also a record, and 11 in European and world competitions. The Old Lady is the third most successful club in Europe and the sixth in the world with the most international titles officially recognised by one of the six continental football confederations and FIFA.
The club was the first Italian and Southern European side to win the UEFA Cup. In 1985, Juventus, the only team in the world to have won all official international cups and championships became the first club in the history of European football to have won all three major UEFA club competitions.
In Italy, Juventus is the club which has the biggest fan base, having also one of the largest numbers of supporters in the world, with a total of 170 million Juventus's supporters (it. tifosi) worldwide. The club is a founding member of the European Club Association, which was formed after the dissolution of the G-14, a collection of Europe's most elite clubs. The Torinese side is also recognized for its contribution to the Italian national team.
At present, the bianconeri play their home games at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino. The stadium which the club owns, Stadio delle Alpi is undergoing long-term structural changes and will not be completed for use until 2011.
Juventus were founded as Sport Club Juventus in late 1897 by pupils from the Massimo D'Azeglio Lyceum school in Turin, but were renamed as Foot-Ball Club Juventus two years later. The club joined the Italian Football Championship during 1900, wearing their original pink and black kit. Juventus first won the league championship in 1905 while playing at their Velodromo Umberto I ground and wearing their famous black and white stripes inspired by English side Notts County.
There was a split at the club in 1906, after some of the staff considered moving Juve out of Turin. President Alfredo Dick was unhappy with this and left with some prominent players to found FBC Torino which in turn spawned the Derby della Mole. Juventus spent much of this period steadily rebuilding after the split, surviving the First World War.
Fiat owner Edoardo Agnelli gained control of the club in 1923, building a new stadium. This helped the club to their second league championship by the 1925–26 season beating Alba Roma with an aggregate score of 12–1, Antonio Vojak's goals were essential that season. The 1930s proved to be even more fruitful, the club won five consecutive league titles from 1930 through to 1935, most were under coach Carlo Carcano with star players such as Raimundo Orsi, Luigi Bertolini, Giovanni Ferrari and Luis Monti amongst others.
Juventus had a new ground in the form of the Stadio Comunale, though for the rest of the 1930s and the majority of the 1940s they were unable to recapture championship dominance.
After the Second World War, Gianni Agnelli was put in place as honorary president. The club added two more scudetto championship's to their name in the 1949–50 and 1951–52 seasons, the latter of which was under the management of Englishman Jesse Carver.
Two new strikers were signed during 1957–58, in the form of Welshman John Charles and Italo-Argentine Omar Sivori, playing alongside longtime member Giampiero Boniperti. That season saw Juventus awarded with the Golden Star for Sport Excellence to wear on their shirt after becoming the first Italian side to win ten league titles. In the same season, Omar Sivori became the first ever player at the club to win the European Footballer of the Year. The following season they beat Fiorentina to complete their first league and cup double, winning Serie A and Coppa Italia. Boniperti retired in 1961 as the all-time top scorer at the club, with 182 goals in all competitions; a club record which would last for 45 years.
For the rest of the decade the club won the league just once more in 1966–67, However, the 1970s would see Juventus further solidify their strong position in Italian football. Under former player Čestmír Vycpálek they won the scudetto in 1971–72 and 1972–73, with players such as Roberto Bettega, Franco Causio and José Altafini breaking through. During the rest of the decade they won the league two more times, with defender Gaetano Scirea contributing significantly. The latter of which was won under Giovanni Trapattoni, the man who would help the club's domination continue on in the early part of the 1980s.
The Trapattoni-era was highly successful in the 1980s, the Old Lady started the decade off well, winning the league title three more times by 1984. This meant Juventus had won 20 Italian league titles and were allowed to add a second golden star to their shirt, thus becoming the only Italian club to achieve this. Around this time the club's players were garnering attention on a large scale; Paolo Rossi was made European Footballer of the Year and had led Italy to victory in the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
Frenchman Michel Platini was also awarded the European Footballer of the Year title for three years in a row; 1983, 1984 and 1985, which is a record. Juventus are the only club to have players from their club winning the award in four consecutive years. Indeed it was Platini who scored the winning goal in the 1985 European Cup final against Liverpool, however this was marred by a tragedy which would change European football; the Heysel Stadium disaster, in which 39 people (mostly Juventus fans) were killed by the stadium wall collapsing when Liverpool supporters rioted, it has been named "the darkest hour in the history of the UEFA competitions" and resulted in the banning of all English clubs from European competition.
With the exception of winning the closely contested Italian Championship of 1985–86, the rest of the 1980s were not very successful for the club. As well as having to contend with Diego Maradona's Napoli, both of the Milanese clubs Milan and Internazionale won Italian championships. In 1990, Juventus moved into their new home; Stadio delle Alpi which was built for the 1990 World Cup.
Marcello Lippi took over as Juventus manager at the start of the 1994–95 campaign. His first season at the helm of the club was a successful one, as Juventus recorded their first Serie A championship title since the mid-1980s. The crop of players during this period featured Ciro Ferrara, Roberto Baggio, Gianluca Vialli and a young Alessandro Del Piero. Lippi lead Juventus to the Champions League the following season, beating Ajax on penalties after a 1–1 draw in which Fabrizio Ravanelli scored for Juve.
The club did not rest long after winning the European Cup, more highly regarded players were brought into the fold in the form of Zinédine Zidane, Filippo Inzaghi and Edgar Davids. At home Juventus won Serie A in 1996–97 and 1997–98, as well as the 1996 European Super Cup. Juventus reached the 1997 and 1998 Champions League finals during this period, but lost out to Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid respectively.
After leaving for a brief season, Lippi returned, signing big name players such as Gianluigi Buffon, David Trézéguet, Pavel Nedvěd and Lilian Thuram, helping the team to two more scudetto titles in the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons. Juventus were also part of an all Italian Champions League final in 2003 but lost out to Milan on penalties after the game ended in a 0–0 draw. The following year, Lippi was appointed as Italy's head coach, bringing an end to one of the most fruitful managerial spells in Juventus' history.
Fabio Capello became manager of Juventus in 2004, and lead Juventus to two more Serie A titles. However, in May 2006, Juventus became one of the five clubs linked to a Serie A match fixing scandal, the result of the which saw the club relegated to Serie B for the first time in their history. The club was also stripped of the two titles won under Capello in 2005 and 2006.
Many key players left following the demotion to Serie B, including Thuram, star striker Zlatan Ibrahimović and defensive stalwart Fabio Cannavaro. However, other big name players remained to help the club return to Serie A. The season was notable because Alessandro Del Piero broke a club record by becoming the first Juventus player to appear 500 times in all competitions for the club. The bianconeri were promoted straight back up as league winners after the 2006–07 season. Since their return to Serie A in the 2007-08 season former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri managed Juventus for two seasons. They finished in 3rd place in their first return season (2007/2008) and qualified for the third qualifying round of the 2008/2009 Champions League Preliminary stages. They qualified to the group stages,and did very well,beating Real Madrid in both home and away legs,but lost in the knockout round against Chelsea F.C.. Claudio Ranieri was sacked following a string of unsuccessful results and Ciro Ferrara was appointed as the coach for the last two games in the season. Later on, Ferrara was appointed as the coach for the 2009/2010 season.
Juventus have played in black and white striped shirts, with white shorts, sometimes black shorts since 1903. Originally, they played in pink shirts with a black tie, which only occurred due to the wrong shirts being sent to them, the father of one of the players made the earliest shirts, but continual washing faded the color so much that in 1903 the club sought to replace them.
Juventus asked one of their team members, Englishman John Savage, if he had any contacts in England who could supply new shirts in a color that would better withstand the elements. He had a friend who lived in Nottingham, who being a Notts County supporter, shipped out the black and white striped shirts to Turin.
Juventus Football Club's official emblem has undergone different and small modifications since the second decade of the twentieth century. The last modification of the Old Lady's badge took place before 2004–05 season. At the present time, the emblem of the team is conformed to a black-and-white oval shield; a type of Italian shield specially used by ecclesiastics, it is divided in five vertical stripes: two white stripes and three black stripes, inside of this are the following elements; in its upper section, the name of the society superimposed on a white convex section, over golden curvature (gold for honour). The white silhouette of a charging bull is in the lower section of the oval shield, superimposed on a black old French shield; the charging bull is a symbol of the Comune di Torino.
There is also a black silhouette of a mural crown above the black spherical triangle's base is a reminiscence to "Augusta Tourinorum", the old city of the Roman era which the present capital of Piedmont region is its cultural heiress.
In the past, the convex section of the emblem had a blue color (another symbol of Turin) and, furthermore, its shape was concave. The old French shield and the mural crown, also in the lower section of the emblem, had a considerably greater size with respect to the present. The two Golden Stars for Sport Excellence were located above the convex & concave section of Juventus' emblem. During the 1980s, the club emblem was the silhouette of a zebra, to both sides of the equide's head, the two golden stars and, above this badge, forming an arc, the clubs name.
During its history, the club has acquired a number of nicknames, la Vecchia Signora (the Old Lady) being the best example. The "old" part of the nickname is a pun on Juventus which means "youth" in Latin. It was derived from the age of the Juventus' star players towards the middle of 1930s. The "lady" part of the nickname is what fans of the club referred to it as affectionately prior to the 1930s. The club is also nicknamed la Fidanzata d'Italia (the Girlfriend of Italy), because over the years they have received a high level of support from Southern Italian immigrant workers (particularly from Naples and Palermo), who arrived in Turin to work for Fiat since the 1930s. Other nicknames include; i bianconeri (the black-and-whites) and le zebre (the zebras ) in reference to Juventus' colors.
After the first two years (1897 and 1898) in which Juventus played the Parco del Valentino and Parco Cittadella, the matches took place internal Piazza d'Armi Stadium until 1908, except in 1905, the first year of the scudetto, and in 1906, years in which it played quickly Corso Re Umberto.
Later, from 1909 to 1922, Juventus played its internal competitions at Corso Sebastopoli Camp, and then move from the following year until 1933 to Corso Marsiglia Camp, where he won four league titles. At the end of 1933 began to play the new stadium Benito Mussolini (former Stadio Comunale Vittorio Pozzo and finally Stadio Olimpico di Torino), inaugurated in view of the 1934 World Championships. In that stage played 890 league matches for 57 years until 1990. Even then continued to train at this stage, until the City of Turin, in 15 July 2003, gave him a royalty-free basis to Turin, giving the same "Delle Alpi" to the company.
Beginning in 1990 and until the 2005-06 season, the Torinese side has contested all home matches at Stadio Delle Alpi, which was built during the World Cup Italy 1990, although in very rare circumstances, the club instead played some home games in other stadia such as Renzo Barbera at Palermo, Dino Manuzzi at Cesena and the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza at Milan.
In August 2006, the bianconeri returned to play in the Stadio Comunale, now with the stage name of Stadio Olimpico, after the restructuring of Stadio Delle Alpi during the Winter Olympic Games.
In November 2008 Juventus announced that they will invest around €100 million to build a new stadium on the site of the old Delle Alpi ground. Featuring a shopping complex, the facility will be ultra-modern, secure and open seven days a week. Unlike the Delle Alpi there won't be a running track, instead the pitch will only be 8.5 meters away from the stands.
The new stadium will hold 40,700 fans and there will be 120 executive boxes. A shopping area as well as parking for 5,300 vehicles. A Juventus museum is also planned. Naming rights have been snapped up by sports marketing company Sportfive and they will be responsible for coming up with a title. Work is set to begin during Spring 2009 and everything completed for the start of the 2011/12 season.
Juventus is the most well supported football club in Italy with over 12 million fans (32.5% of Italian football fans), according to an August 2008 research by Italian newspaper La Repubblica, as well as one of the most supported football clubs in the world, with approximately 170 million supporters (43 million of them in Europe alone), particularly in the Mediterranean countries, to which a large among of Italian diaspora have emigrated. The Old Lady has fan clubs all over the world outside the country, from places as far apart as Canada, United States, Malta, San Marino, England, Iran, Greece, Israel, Vietnam, Malaysia,India, Australia, Albania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Macedonia, Uruguay and many more.
Despite this strong support, attendances at Juventus home matches average about 22,000, much less than many other highly renowned European teams. Contrastingly, demand for Juventus tickets in occasional home games held away from Turin is high; suggesting that Juventus have stronger support in other parts of the country. Juve is widely and especially popular throughout mainland Southern Italy and Sicily, leading the team to have one of the largest followings in its away matches, more than in Turin itself.
Juventus ultras have good relationships with Piacenza, Den Haag and Legia Warsaw fans and have several rivalries, three of which are highly significant. The first is with local club Torino, they compete in the Derby della Mole (Derby of Torino) together; this rivalry dates back to 1906 when Torino was founded by former Juve members. The other most significant rivalry is with Internazionale; matches between Juventus and Inter are referred to as the Derby d'Italia (Derby of Italy). Up until the 2006 Serie A match-fixing scandal, which saw Juventus relegated, the two were the only Italian clubs to have never played below Serie A. Notably the two sides are the first and the second most supported clubs in Italy and the rivalry has intensified since the later part of the 1990s; reaching its highest levels ever post-Calciopoli, with the return of Juventus to Serie A. They also have rivalries with Roma and Fiorentina.
Historically, Juventus is Italy's most successful team, having won a total of 40 trophies, and one of the most prestigious football clubs in the world, having won a total of 11 official international trophies -with a record of 9 UEFA competition titles and 2 World-wide titles won-, making them the third most winning team in Europe and sixth in the world for official international club competitions won, all recognized by Union of European Football Association, one of the six continental football confederations, and International Federation of Association Football.
Juventus have won the Italian League Championship a record twenty-seven times. and have the record of consecutive triumphs in the football's premier club competition (5, since 1930–31 season to 1934–35 season). They have also won the Italian Cup nine times, holding the record number of wins -overall and consecutives- for the latter.
The Old Lady has earned the distinction of being allowed to wear a two Golden Stars for Sport Excellence (it. Stelle d'Oro al Merito Sportivo) on its shirt representing the league's victories of the bianconeri: the tenth, achieved during the 1957–58 season and the twentieth, in 1981–82 season. Also, Juventus is the only Italian team has achieved two times the national double (winning the Italian top tier division and the national cup competition in the same season), in 1959–60 and 1994–95 seasons.
Juventus, the only football club in the world to have won all official international cups and championships, has received, in recognition to win the three major European club competitions, as first case in the history of the European football, The UEFA Plaque by the Union of European Football Associations in 1987. They have won the UEFA Cup three times, which is a joint record they share with Liverpool and Internazionale.
The Torinese side was placed 7th -and first between all Italian clubs- in the FIFA Clubs of the 20th Century's selection on 23 December 2000.
Juventus has been proclaimed World's Club Team of the Year twice (1993 and 1996) and was ranked in the 3th place -and first between all Italian clubs- in the All-Time Club World Ranking (1991-2008 period) by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.
Alessandro Del Piero holds Juventus' official appearance record (600 as of 10 May 2009). He took over from Gaetano Scirea on 6 March 2008 against Palermo. Giampiero Boniperti holds the record for Lega Calcio Serie A appearances with 444.
Including all official competitions, Alessandro Del Piero is the all-time leading goalscorer for Juventus, with 241 goals -as of 19 May 2008- since joining the club in 1993. Giampiero Boniperti, who was the all-time topscorer since 1961 comes in second in all competitions with 182, but is still the top league goalscorer for the Old Lady as of June 2007[update].
In the 1933–34 season, Felice Placido Borel II° scored 31 goals in 34 appearances, setting the club record for Serie A goals in a single season. Ferenc Hirzer is the club's highest scorer in a single season with 35 goals in 26 appearances in the 1925–26 season (record of Italian football). The most goals scored by a player in a single match is 6, which is also an Italian record. This was achieved by Omar Enrique Sivori in a game against Internazionale in the 1960–61 season.
The first ever official game participated in by Juventus was in the Third Federal Football Championship, the predecessor of Serie A, against Torinese; Juve lost 0–1. The biggest ever victory recorded by Juventus was 15–0 against Cento, in the second round of the Coppa Italia in the 1926–27 season. In terms of the league; Fiorentina and Fiumana were famously on the end of the Old Lady's biggest championship wins, both were beaten 11–0 and were recorded in the 1928–29 season. Juventus' heaviest championship defeats came during the 1911–12 and 1912–13 seasons; they were against Milan in 1912 (1–8) and Torino in 1913 (0–8).
The Old Lady holds the record for the most goals in a single season, in the top flight of Italian football, this includes national league, national cup and European competition, with a total of 106 goals in the 1992–93 season. The sale of Zinédine Zidane to Real Madrid of Spain from Juventus in 2001, set the current world football transfer record for the most expensive deal, costing the Spanish club around £46 million.
Overall, Juventus is the club that has contributed the most players to the Italian national team in history, they are the only Italian club that has contributed players to every Italian national teams since the 2nd FIFA World Cup. Juventus have contributed numerous players to Italy's World Cup campaigns, these successful periods principally have coincided with two golden ages of the Turin club's history, referred as Il Quinquennio d'Oro (The Golden Quinquennium), from 1931 until 1935, and Il Ciclo Leggendario (The Legendary Cycle), from 1972 to 1986.
Below are a list of Juventus players who represented the Italian national team during World Cup winning tournaments;
* 1934 FIFA World Cup (9); Gianpiero Combi, Virginio Rosetta, Luigi Bertolini, Felice Borel IIº, Umberto Caligaris, Giovanni Ferrari, Luis Monti, Raimundo Orsi and Mario Varglien Iº
* 1938 FIFA World Cup (2); Alfredo Foni and Pietro Rava
* 1982 FIFA World Cup (6); Dino Zoff, Antonio Cabrini, Claudio Gentile, Paolo Rossi, Gaetano Scirea and Marco Tardelli
* 2006 FIFA World Cup (5); Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi, Alessandro Del Piero and Gianluca Zambrotta
Two Juventus players have won the golden boot award at the World Cup with Italy; Paolo Rossi in 1982 and Salvatore Schillaci in 1990. As well as contributing to Italy's World Cup winning sides, two Juventus players Alfredo Foni and Pietro Rava, represented Italy in the gold medal winning squad at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Three bianconeri players represented their nation during the 1968 European Football Championship win for Italy; Sandro Salvadore, Ernesto Càstano and Giancarlo Bercellino.
Juventus have also contributed to a lesser degree to the national sides of other nations. Zinédine Zidane and captain Didier Deschamps were Juventus players when they won the 1998 World Cup with France, making the total number of Juventus World Cup winners 24, more than any other club around the world (three other players in the 1998 squad, Patrick Vieira, David Trézéguet and Lilian Thuram have all played for Juventus at one time or another). Three Juventus players have also won the European Football Championship with a nation other than Italy, Luis del Sol won it in 1964 with Spain, while the Frenchmen Michel Platini and Zidane won the competition in 1984 and 2000 respectively.
Since 27 June 1967 Juventus Football Club has been a joint stock company (Società per Azioni in Italian language) and since 3 December 2001 the torinese side is listed on the Borsa Italiana. Currently, the Juventus' shares are distributed between 60% to IFIL Investments S.p.A, the Agnelli family's holding (a company of the Giovanni Agnelli & C.S.a.p.a Group), 7.5% to Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Co. and 32.5% to other shareholders.
Along with Lazio and Roma, the Old Lady is one of only three Italian clubs quotated in Borsa Italiana (Italian stock exchange). According to The Football Money League published by consultants Deloitte, in the season 2005–06, Juventus was the third highest earning football club in the world with an estimated revenue of €251.2 million.
