Del Piero, Zidane, Platini & 100 Juventus tributes for Agnelli dynasty

On Monday, the Agnelli family is celebrating 100 years at Juventus. It all started when Edoardo Agnelli became the club’s president on the 24th of July 1923.

Since then, Juventus has been under the tutelage of the famous Italian family. Whether from managerial posts or from afar, the members of the Agnelli dynasty had always been in charge of the club.

Nowadays, Edoardo Agnelli’s great-grandson John Elkann is the De Facto leader of the family and owns the majority of the club’s shares through a Dutch holding company named EXOR (which controls the family’s assets).

To celebrate the occasion, the official Juventus website published a post that contains 100 tributes from club legends, former coaches, celebrities and even members of the Agnelli family.

You can read them all on the club’s website.

Juventus icon Alessandro Del Piero talked about his special rapport with L’Avvocato Gianni Agnelli.

“In that hand on the shoulder you can feel the strength, the support, the responsibility of being part of Juventus for a hundred years.

“A century together, the Club and the Agnelli Family. There is a photo, taken at the training ground at the old Comunale in the early 2000s, that particularly connects me to the Avvocato which I knew, as well as Dr. Umberto, from my earliest days at Juventus.

“It was in those conversations, in those moments, that I saw up close what those colors meant and mean to the Agnelli Family.

“I am a Juventus fan, I was at Juventus for 19 years, and that gave me the opportunity to be part of a great history and to understand what this love that has lasted for a century means. Because there are stories that cannot end.”

For his part, France hero Zinedine Zidane recalls his five special years in Turin.

“Juve! A lot of emotions: how could I not think of the Avvocato, always attentive to me, his calls at dawn after a match won, his appearances at training…the world stood still!

“Juve was more than just a family; it was a matrix where I really learned what ‘competitiveness’ meant as a player, and which propelled me, too, in my life as a man and in my family.”

In the 1980s, Michel Platini was amongst the biggest stars in the world. He dwells on his unforgettable years at the club and the impact of the Agnellis.

“I did not know the history of the Agnelli family, in France I followed the matches of the Italian teams but nothing I knew about the presidents.

“When I arrived in Turin I discovered a reality that it was not only about Juventus and its successes but about those who had led it for years with the same last name: Agnelli.

“Getting to know the lawyer and his brother Umberto, made me understand the importance and significance of a unique dynasty linked to the club, a fascinating history filled with characters of great charisma and competence, while respecting the family tradition.

“For me, they were beautiful and unforgettable years.”