Juventus: A History in Black and White

BORN ON A BENCH:

THE EARLY YEARS OF JUVENTUS

Football is a game of identity. Clubs are instantly recognisable through imagery, icons and by the colours they wear. Before the sport became omnipresent on television and the Internet, where fans were born and grow up supporting their local club, these identities were woven through generations of families and friends. Like many of football’s grandest clubs, Juventus can point to the humblest of origins, far removed from the bright lights and multi-millionaire players gracing the sport today.

At the opening of the brand new Juventus Stadium on September 8, 2011, the Bianconeri held a ceremony which perfectly captured that history, and told the story of those early days. The club spared no expense in putting on a spectacular and emotion-laden display, and welcomed their supporters into this bright new dawn. Yet, looking past the hours of rehearsal and choreography, beyond the cheerleaders and former champions, the celebration of past triumphs and remembrance of tragic loss, it would be a moment that cost absolutely nothing which was easily the most priceless memory taken from the evening.

In the midst of all that glamour, noise and excitement, two men – surrounded by thousands of people and with millions more watching on television – sat on a bench and discussed their mutual appreciation of a club that both deeply love. It formed a wonderfully poignant moment, encapsulating everything that is good about Juventus, and indeed the wider landscape of Italian football. One of the two men was instantly recognisable to even the most casual observers of Serie A, the then-Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero, a man who embodies all the virtues of what became known as ‘lo stile Juve’, the innate style of the club.

A man who spent the majority of his nineteen-year Juventus career letting his feet do the talking would, on this occasion, find the perfect words. Del Piero acknowledged his own place within the club’s storied past, as he told those in attendance; I’m proud of the important pages I have written in our great history. Juve have always been a wonderful painting and a great painting needs a wonderful frame like this.

More knowledgeable onlookers would have also identified his companion on that bench as the former holder of many of the records that Del Piero has since broken. Before Roberto Baggio, Michel Platini and Gaetano Scirea came to wear the black and white, Giampiero Boniperti brought the club out of the long shadow cast by city rivals Torino. Returning as President after his retirement, he helped Gianni Agnelli construct the team that won the 1985 European Cup, as well as being partially responsible for actually bringing Del Piero to the club. His words were equally heartfelt and met just as rapturously by those gathered as he said;

My history with Juventus started on 4 June 1946 and I’m still here 65 years on to hug you fans and remind the current players of a famous sentence: For Juve, winning is not important; it’s the only thing that really matters.

That last phrase is one Boniperti has stated many times, and is taken almost as the club maxim by many. As he uttered those words once again, a few well-informed fans may have even gone so far as to recognise where the two legends were seated, and like everything else on this most perfect of nights, the choice was no accident. It was the bench where students from the city’s Massimo D’Azeglio school sat all those years ago, hatching a plan to found the now giant club.

They did so not with hopes of dominating Europe or even Italy but, just like we all do as children, for somewhere to have fun. The name they chose – Juventus – was also novel as, instead of being that of a town, city or district, is in fact the latin word for ‘Youth’. Their kits would have been unrecognisable today, as they originally donned an all white shirt and ‘plus-fours’ combination, replaced in 1899 by a pink shirt with a black collar and tie. The club’s first President was Enrico Canfari and they played at Piazza d’Armi, making their debut in the national championship on March 11 1900. It would be an inauspicious start as they lost 0-1 to the now disbanded F.B.C. Torinese.

A few years later, a set of circumstances and events lead to perhaps the most significant moment of those early years, the arrival of the famous black and white stripes so synonymous with the club today. The father of one of the players made the earliest pink shirts, but continual washing between games caused them to fade so much that in 1903 the club sought to replace them. Englishman John Savage, a member of that original team, was asked to reach out to his contacts in England to supply new shirts that would better withstand the elements.

The friend he contacted lived in Nottingham, and being a supporter of England’s oldest professional sports club Notts County, he shipped out their own boldly striped shirts to Turin. It was no surprise that when Juventus were looking for the ideal opponent to inaugurate what was undoubtedly the most important stadium in Italian football history, the club eschewed the obvious options of Real Madrid, Manchester United or Barcelona, and instead invited English League One side, Notts County.

Juve have worn those Bianconeri shirts ever since, considering the colors to be far better suited to winters below the Alps than pink. Silverware soon followed and that same year they won the Coppa Città di Torino for the second time, beating Milan Cricket Club in the Final. Twelve months later they would lose again, this time to Genoa in the championship play-off, but soon they would deliver the club’s first major trophy.

The 1905 season would be a memorable one for the fledgling club and they would end the campaign as champions for the first time ever. Unlike many of their rivals, the team called upon a core of Italian players, while other clubs filled their line-ups with English settlers. After comfortably topping the Piemontese group, Juventus entered the three-way national finals against Genoa and Unione Sportiva Milanese. They would be held to two 1-1 draws against the former, but beat the latter convincingly, recording 3-0 and 4-1 victories.

Those results would be enough to see them narrowly pip the Ligurian side to the title by just a single point. There was no tricolore shield to add to their shirts to mark the achievement as we see today, but the Football Federation did award the club a commemorative plaque. Juventus could finally call themselves the Champions of Italy. As was common at that time, they lined up in the W-M formation invented by Arsenal’s Herbert Chapman, fielding Domenico Durante between the posts. In front of him, Gioacchino Armano and Oreste Mazzia were the full backs, with Swiss immigrant Paul Arnold Walty, captain Giovanni Goccione and Jack Diment of Scotland as the middle trio. The forward line was comprised of another Swiss national Alberto Barberis as well as Carlo Vittorio Varetti, Luigi Forlano, Englishman James Squair and Domenico Donna. The same eleven played every game and Donna also acted as the team’s coach.

Later that year, Chairman Alfred Dick led an exodus from the club following some major internal disagreements over moving Juventus out of Turin. Several members of that winning side went with the Swiss textile magnate and formed Torino FC, giving birth to one of Italian football’s oldest rivalries. The split was far from amicable and ensured that those early meeting of the city’s two club’s were laced with vitriol both on and off the field.

Carlo Vittorio Varetti took up the vacated role as Chairman following that schism, but between then and the outbreak of World War I, Juventus regressed. Living in the shadow of fellow Piedmont clubs Casale and Pro Vercelli, the club struggled to remain competitive, but the Great War did lead to yet another key event of those early years. With so many of the players called up to fight, the board decided they needed to find some way of communicating with them and decided to create the first in-house newspaper. The first edition was published on October 23, 1915 and it would be entitled Hurrà, giving birth to a publication still in existence today. Juventus would also be touched by tragedy as the Third Battle of the Isonzo would claim the life of Enrico Canfari, one of the founding members of the club.

The Bianconeri would make a triumphant return following the end of the hostilities, with players including Giovanni Giacone, who became the first to represent the Italian national team. President Corradino Corradini wrote the first club anthem, which was used until the 1960s. But this was a very different Juventus than the one we are familiar with today, with football still very much an amateur game and adhering to a raft of strange parochial rules. One such byelaw stated that players could only play for the town in which they lived, and the league was dominated by teams like Pro Vercelli and Genoa.

That would soon change.

THE ORIGINAL HEROES: GIAMPIERO COMBI & THE QUINQUENNIO D’ORO

It is the kind of story which fills dreams, a tale that one imagines would be almost impossible to sell to Hollywood’s movie industry. The likelihood of cinema-goers suspending their disbelief until the hero had not only helped his hometown club to an unprecedented period of success, but went on to do the same on the international stage, coming out of retirement to captain his country at the World Cup. Trying to convince an audience that the tournament was also held in the nation of his birth, and that he would lift the trophy at the end before walking away from the game for good would simply never make the cut.

However, that is precisely the path which Giampiero Combi trod, enjoying an incredible career that very few men could ever hope to emulate. Born in Turin back in 1902, he joined the Juventus youth ranks and eventually progressed to the first team, making his initial bow in a February 1922 match against Milan. Aged just 21, the goalkeeper displayed incredible maturity and quickly made the position his own, going on to make a total of ten appearances in that debut campaign.

By the time the 1922-23 season ended – with Combi having started all but one of Juve’s games – Genoa and Pro Vercelli had racked up sixteen league championships between them. The Bianconeri still had only won a solitary title, way back in 1905, and were some distance away from competing. That all changed in the seasons following July 1923, when a number of events occurred which changed the face of Calcio forever.

The league, which had previously been divided in a number of ways, was unified, whilst Edoardo Agnelli became President of Juventus. Rallying against the rule over moving clubs, Agnelli and defender Virginio Rosetta instigated what would become one of the first scandals of the Italian game. Playing as an amateur for his hometown club, the Pro Vercelli defender was idolised by the supporters, but took up a lucrative job offer from the Juventus owner to work as an accountant in Turin. With him in the side, it seemed a long overdue second title would finally be claimed by Juventus, but as Vercelli and Genoa – who would finish runners up – appealed the decision, the results of games in which the new signing had featured were expunged.

The incident, labelled the ‘Caso Rosetta’, became infamous as it eventually lead to the rise of transfers, wages and the advent of professionalism in the Italian game. Now often forgotten, it was arguably as big a decision as the Bosman Ruling in 1995, but it would push Agnelli’s side down to fifth place and Genoa would win the league again. Once Rosetta was cleared to play for Juventus, however, a new era was born for La Vecchia Signora; an era with Combi at its heart, and the Bianconeri exerting their dominance to an unprecedented level.

In 1924, Combi would make his debut for Italy, called into the side for the first time by the great Vittorio Pozzo. It would be a match to forget however, as the Azzurri were demolished completely by György Molnár and Hungary. The 7-1 heartbreak remains the nation’s record defeat even today. That result could not dent the confidence of the young goalkeeper, and he returned to domestic duties ahead of the 1925-26 season determined to drive his team to success.

His resolve would see Juventus return to the Championship play-off for the first time in five years, lining up against the previous year’s winner Bologna. The first leg ended 2-2, while the second was a tense and nervous 0-0 draw. With no away goals rule, the two sides would lock horns for a third time, in a match held on neutral territory in Milan. Juventus would emerge triumphant, securing the second championship in their history, helped by the incredible goal scoring feats of Ferenc Hirzer.

The Hungarian striker smashed a scarcely believable 35 goals in just 28 games that term, and was ably supported by another 28 from Pietro Pastore. That they won the title was incredible, despite seeing their manager Jenő Károly dying as a result of a heart attack in the days between the final two matches. His compatriot József Viola, still a midfielder for the Bianconeri, would take charge of that key encounter and keep the job for two more years.

During that time, Rosetta and Combi helped Italy to a Bronze medal at the 1928 Olympic Games. Upon seeing Umberto Caligaris partner with them to complete an almost impenetrable defence, Agnelli would act once again. He signed a deal with Casale that would bring the latter to Juventus, and his decisiveness gave birth to one of the greatest defensive trios the game had ever seen. The legendary trio of Combi-Rosetta-Cagliaris was born, and Juventus would have its first true heroes.

The two defenders had constantly battled for one slot in Pozzo’s national team, competing to partner the great Genoa stopper Renzo De Vecchi. Teaming up in Turin would be the making of both men. They would regularly feature together for the Azzurri; their understanding improving season by season. But it was arguably Combi who held it all together, perhaps the original superstar of Juventus, and certainly the pioneer of a great tradition of Bianconeri goalkeepers.

Unlike the giants found between the posts today, he was a distinctly average 1.71 meters (5’ 7"), but he was strong enough to survive the kind of challenges that would be beyond more modern ‘keepers. Due to that lack of protection, he was injured several times as a result of reckless collisions with opposition forwards, famously playing a game against Modena with three cracked ribs.

Over the course of his career he built a reputation for being amazingly consistent, rarely if ever having a poor game. Much of this was attributed to his incredible dedication to training, devoting himself to waking early every morning in order to complete a rigorous schedule of gymnastics and practicing the skills he needed on match days. He invented a routine of kicking a ball against a wall, then catching the rebound in order to hone his reflexes. His efforts paid handsome dividends, allowing him to set a record for Serie A’s longest streak without conceding a goal – 934 minutes in the 1925-26 season – which stands to this day.

Following that 1926 Scudetto, Juventus would endure a somewhat dry spell, recording two finishes in second and two more in third place over the next four seasons. Those campaigns coincided with the league finally becoming unified in a single table. Just a year later, the Turin giants would begin a period of dominance which has yet to be bettered by any club on the peninsula.

Over the next five years, an era which would later become known as the Quinquennio d’Oro or ‘The Golden Quinquennium,’ was the first time Juventus was able to enjoy sustained success. Having looked on with envy as Genoa and Pro Vercelli each wrote their names indelibly into the early pages of Calcio history, this was when La Vecchia Signora would finally be able to do the same. She would win five consecutive league titles, a record run that has yet to be surpassed, and the only previous time to date that Juve has won more than two Scudetti in succession.

In order to accomplish this historic feat, Agnelli would provide stronger and stronger squads, using his huge personal wealth to build a team without peers. Carlo Carcano arrived as coach, a man praised as being a great strategist and an excellent teacher of technique by none other than the legendary Vittorio Pozzo. He was a devoted student of the Metodo system devised by Pozzo, which allowed players to thrive under both men.

Carcano was coach of the Bianconeri from 1930 until 1934, leading the club through the most trophy-laden period in her history, and even today remains the only man to have won four consecutive Serie A titles with any side. Remarkably losing just twelve league games during his entire tenure, he drew praise for his tactical ability, with Pozzo singling out the discipline, teaching and organisation of matches demonstrated by a champion like Carcano.

Their 2–3–2–3 formation – forever immortalised on foosball tables across the globe – would perhaps be of greatest benefit to Luis Monti, an Argentinian player who would soon hold the distinction of having played in two World Cup Finals with different national teams. Playing as the centre-half, he would also arguably become the game’s first defensive midfielder, as Carcano asked him to defy the usual attacking forays of that role to cover the pitch laterally and mark opposition strikers.

Monti dropped back in an unprecedented manner, providing cover to his full-backs and paving the way for the mediano role. He was clearly a rugged player, one of that generation’s most fearsome tacklers, but had the technical skills to make him a standout who earned the nickname doble ancho – ‘double wide’ – due to the incredible way he covered the pitch.

Further forward, another Bianconeri legend and one of the first great strikers in Juve history, Felice Borel II, progressed from the Primavera to score goals at an incredible rate, netting 29 goals in 28 games in 1932-33, despite only being 18 years old. He would continue that amazing run over his twelve years in Turin, leaving Juve with 157 goals in 308 games, good enough to see him rank sixth in the club’s all time scoring charts.

But this team was built largely on the excellence of that supremely talented back three. By the time the titles began arriving like clockwork, both Rosetta and Caligaris had matured to become almost unbeatable. The team conceded just 149 goals across those five championship seasons, compared to the 429 they would score themselves, thanks almost entirely to those three early icons. The former became a great organiser, taking over as captain and leading the side with distinction. He was an excellent reader of the game, often covering for the mistakes of his team-mates and saving them on numerous occasions.

The trio had now become central to both club and country, helping Juve take her first steps in the international arena, reaching four semi-finals in the Mitropa Cup which was an early precursor to the European Cup. However, as Italy prepared to host the 1934 World Cup and still clearly at the top of his game, Combi would shock both teams by announcing his retirement. Weary from having played over 350 games since his debut, he decided that, at almost 32 years old, that the