Ahead of Manchester City's glamour game with Juventus we provide a short history of the Turin giants.
Ahead of Manchester City's glamour game with Juventus we provide a short history of the Turin giants.
The Old Lady are in institution in world football with their back story an intriguing talent of pink shirts and black ties, Fiat and corruption.
Here,
skysports.com looks at some of the more interesting facets of a special football club.
* Juventus were founded as Sport Club Juventus on 1st November 1897. The founders were students at an esteemed high school in Turin, the 'Liceo Massimo D'Azeglio'.
* Only Genoa and Pro Patria were established before Juventus, who have played in the Italian top flight (given its Serie A title in 1929) every season with the exception 2006/07, when they were demoted amid a match-fixing scandal.
* Juve's original kit was a fetching pink number that was complemented by a black tie. In these pre-Persil times pink did not stand up well in the wash so it was decided in 1903 a change was needed. One of their team members, John Savage, was an Englishman who had a contact in Nottingham that could provide new kit. He was a Notts County fan and the rest is history.
* The Old Lady won their first title in 1905 but it was not until the Agnelli family, owners of the powerful Fiat motor group, become involved in 1923 did the club establish themselves as Italy's most powerful. It was the Agnelli family that structured the club in a more professional manner and appointed full-time coaches and managers.
* Juventus remain the only side in world football to have won all official international competitions. Domestically they have won 40 trophies (including 27 Serie A titles), while their European record reads two European Cups, one Cup Winners' Cup, three Uefa Cups, one Intercontinental Cup and two Super Cups.
* Their first professional coach was Jeno Karoly, who served the club between 1923-26. In the intervening period Juve have gone through a further 48, with Luigi Del Neri the current incumbent.
* The early 1930s were particularly fruitful as Juventus secured five successive titles between 1930 and 1935. Thereafter followed a barren spell as their next titles came in 1949/50 and 1951/52 (the latter under English coach Jesse Carver).
* Welshman John Charles enjoyed a prolific spell with the Turin giants between 1957 and 1962, scoring 93 goals in 150 appearances. In later years Liam Brady, Ian Rush and David Platt would go on to wear black and white with varying degrees of success.
* A survey conducted in national newspaper
La Repubblica concluded Juventus are the best supported club in Italy, with over 12million fans (32.5% of Italian football fans). Juventus are hugely popular in mainland Southern Italy and Sicily. Bizarrely, demand for tickets to see Juve play away from home is higher than for home matches. Juve's appeal in Southern Italy is credited with being due to the high number of immigrant workers who arrived in Italy in the 1930s to work for Fiat.
* Talisman Alessandro Del Piero joined the club in 1993 from Padova. To date he has scored 197 goals in 459 appearances. At 35 he remains a key part of Del Neri's first XI and will forever be the darling of the Juve faithful. Del Piero cemented his status as a club legend when he shunned mega-money offers from elsewhere to stay with the club upon their demotion in 2006/07, at a time when other leading lights were quick to jump ship. The overall career stats for a modern day great read 277 goals in 650 appearances. City would be wise to keep an eye on him tonight.
