Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! We’re back with more STTBS, catching you up on all of the relevant Juventus related news of the day, and perhaps some oddities along the way. Juventus are half-way through February, and keep delaying games under an avalanche of show. It will be a very fixture-packed Spring ahead, but we’ll keep you up to date here at JuventiKnows.
Juventus - For Gianni Agnelli and others, "ONE LOVE!"
Tomorrow is one of those rescheduled matches as Juventus travel to Emilia-Romagna to take on Parma. The Ducali have seen a bit of a resurgence after Franco Colomba was sacked, and Roberto Donadoni would love to give a gift to his President in a bid to stay on permanently. We’ve got TeamEats for Parma already up, and the preview is here as well!
- An amazing story came out of Italy late last week. A young southern Italian girl fell into a coma back in January. Being a good southerner, she of course supports Juventus and Alessandro Del Piero is her idol. Her father appealed to Ale through a charity, and Del Piero recorded a video for her, saying he “looked forward to welcoming her to a game in Torino” and encouraging her to wakeup. The hospital played the video for her a few times, and she started to move her fingers. After a few hours, she had called for her mother, and within 12 hours, was eating ice cream. Alex Santo SUBITO!
- The Primavera continued to march on in the Viareggio tournament. They battled Vicenza in the Round of 16, and despite heroics from the young Biancorossi keeper, overcame the side from Veneto. The game went to penalties, and Branescu made the decisive save as the Juventus players did their job on the other side of the ball. Last year’s winners Inter were knocked out of the tournament this round, completing an all around perfect day in Viareggio.
- Giuseppe Giovinco (his younger brother) gave an interview with Tuttosport the other day, reflecting on their childhood (“we used to play soccer in the house, with the kitchen door and the hallway as the ends“) and their virtual playtime. “Seba was better at Playstation, when we played Brazil-France, Zizou and the Bleus always won.” Giovinco #2 then reflected on their idols “For me, Ronaldo, but I had a Trezeguet jersey- he’s very different from me, but always drove me crazy. Seba’s favorite was Andriy Shevchenko. Thanks to Bettega, Seba eventually got a signed shirt from Shevchenko for that goal he lobbed over Buffon.”
- Giuseppe Giovinco wasn’t the only family member to talk about Sebastian in the run up to Parma-Juventus, as Giovinco’s father weighed on his future.
Us Giovincos owe Juventus a lot. I hope this is the last game where Juve are the opponents- I’d like to see my son back at Juve. But I’m not betting on it, at the moment there’s 50% chance of that happening. The precedent of Cáceres, who was not signed in 2010 and later bought in January, comforts me. Conte always appreciated my son. Where will we spend our Summer vacation? In Poland and Ukraine I hope…
- Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa mentioned a “funny” story from the days of President Boniperti at Juventus.
Inter and Juve had come to scout out Rabah Madjer in the 1987 European SuperCup (Madjer if you recall, was the first player to ever try and succeed at scoring a goal with that backheel-flick, much like Del Piero later did vs. Borussia Dortmund in 1997). Porto decided not to play Madjer and his replacement, Portuguese midfielder Rui Barros, played a fantastic game. Juventus were extremely impressed, wanted the player immediately. When Da Costa informed him of the Bianconeri’s interest, Rui Barros didn’t believe him, thinking his boss was kidding around, but the deal went through.
When the Da Costa and Rui Barros arrived in Turin, the president recalls: “Rui Barros, who is 5’3″ tall, was very short standing next to Dino Zoff, a huge difference. So Boniperti asked me ‘Jorge, is this the right player?’. Boniperti started to pull his hair out! I told him, “Mr President, calm down! In a month you’ll see what a great player you’ve bought.”
Rui Barros would stay two years at Juventus, featuring in 60 appearances and scoring 14 goals, and winning the Coppa Italia / UEFA Cup double in 1990 before being sold to Monaco.
That’s it for us today at STTBS. Make sure to check out our new feature, the Shoutbox, where we’ll be aiming to host a sort of community “running dialog” throughout the week.
Tomorrow, Juventus takes on Parma at the Tardini (preview here) in a postponed match from January 31st. Stadium officials have been busy shoveling snow & keeping the stands clear of ice the past few days, so barring an ice cataclysm the match WILL take place this time. Tune in at 18:30 CET to find out how it goes!
[STTBS]: Cronaca Juve is a daily feature where the JuventiKnows editorial team discusses the JuveNews stories you need to read, without the “Messi signs for Juve on loan thanks to Nike” kind of nonsense. What does [STTBS] mean? You’ll have to guess that for yourself. We wouldn’t tell you even under pain of torture… (though we do take bribes)
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