January 24, 2003/2023: twenty years without the lawyer Gianni Agnelli
On January 24, 2023, the twentieth anniversary of the death of thelawyer Gianni Agnelli. On July 24, 1923 his father Edward had assumed the presidency of the Juventus, founded in 1897 by a group of students from the Massimo D’Azeglio classical high school. No other family (or other kind of property) has been at the helm of a football club for so long, but the double anniversary – the twentieth anniversary of the disappearance and the centenary of the partnership – also marks the end of the adventure. After resigning as president of Juventus, Andrea Agnelli he also left his roles in Exor and Stellantiseffectively delivering the scepter into the hands of his cousin John “Jaki” Elkann who had already been designated as the lawyer’s true heir for some time, but who had entrusted Andrea with tasks of primary importance, such as the leadership of Juventus. Tasks, however, carried out with excellent results, up to the dramatic epilogue. So let’s try to compare, with the aid of numbers, the two black and white managements signed by Gianni Agnelli and Andrea Agnelli.
The lawyer’s Juventus: 1947-1994
Gianni Agnelli was at the helm of Juventus for 47 years, although first as operational president and then “only” as honorary president, leaving the executive role to Giampiero Boniperti, former Juventus center forward who he himself had promoted to manager. What many called the true “King” of Italy was at the same time a life senator (since 1991) and mayor of Villar Perosa (from 1945 to 1980), a pleasant Piedmontese town which was also the good retreat della Famiglia, as well as still the scene of the traditional summer match against the youth team, which symbolizes the start of the sports season.
During his long career, which began at just 26 years of age, the lawyer accompanied Juventus to win 32 titles: 15 championships, six Italian Cups, the Alpine Cup and above all the conquest of all five international cups of the time: three times the UEFA Cup, the Cup Winners’ Cup, the European Super Cup, the Champions Cup and the Intercontinental Cup. In 1985, the year of the first triumph both in Europe and in the world, Juventus therefore became the first club on the planet to put every attainable trophy on the bulletin board. In the era of Gianni Agnelli, Juventus also conquered seven Ballons d’Or: in 1961 Omar Sivori (as native), in 1982 Paolo Rossi, in 1983, 1984 and 1985 Michel Platini and in 1993 Roberto Baggio.
A lover of football and its most refined interpreters, the Avvocato was also very famous for his jokes and the nicknames he assigned to his favorites: from Sivori to Platinums (“Taken for a loaf of bread, but then we spread the caviar on it”), from “Raphael” Baggio as far as “Pinturicchio” Del Piero. The 1982 world champion national team was also strongly marked by Juventus, with as many as six starters from the team coached by Giovanni Trapattoni: Dino Zoff, the late Gaetano Scirea, Claudio Gentile, Antonio Cabrini, Marco Tardelli and the top scorer of the mundial “Pablito” Rossi. Four years earlier, in Argentina, there were no less than nine Azzurri that coach Bearzot had taken from Juventus, effectively laying the foundations for the team that would later conquer the world.
In 1994 Gianni Agnelli passed the hand to his brother Humbertwho has rebuilt a winning cycle relying on the “triad” Moggi-Giraudo-Bettega it’s at Marcello Lippi on the bench. In addition to bringing the Old Lady back to the throne of Europe and the world, the coach from Viareggio then guided Italy to another world championship success. Even the 2006 final was strongly marked by Juve, with eight black and whites on the field: five between the Azzurri and three in France. Unfortunately, the lawyer missed the show: on 24 January 2003 he died at the age of 81, due to a prostate cancer that had been tormenting him for a long time. And who knows how he would have reacted to see the scandal Calciopoli which, immediately after the final in Berlin, forced Juventus into a humiliating restart from Serie B….
Andrea Agnelli’s Juventus: 2010-2022
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