Despite sort of devaluing the idea of a ‘Peace’ Cup by contriving to have both a player and manager sent off during the tournament, Aston Villa beat Juventus on penalties to lift the trophy yesterday.
In a shootout played out in front of literally tens of people, both teams put in some suitably pre-season-esque shanks and mishits before Alessandro Del Piero stepped up for Juve’s match winning spotkick (forward to 5:40)
Channelling the spirit of Dimitar Berbatov’s limp-dicked penner against Everton in last year’s FA Cup Semis, the mercurial Italian playmaker took a menacing stuttered run-up before gently stroking the ball into Brad Guzan’s waiting arms. Clearly beyond caring by this point, the Bianconeri went on to lose after a rubbish fifth penalty from Nicola Legrottaglie.
To his credit, after the match Del Piero admirably tried to make out like he actually cared about losing football’s most girly pre-season cup, saying: “It is a sour loss. However, we have to use it in order to grow stronger.”
In case you missed it on Wednesday night, Arsene Wenger showed his players that he too can break out some dance moves when celebrating a goal [Youtube]
Sir Alex Ferguson has accused Rafael Benitez of “arrogance” and “contempt”
[F365]
Jose Mourinho taunts Alessandro Del Piero ahead of tomorrow’s Derby d’Italia
[Goal]
West Ham are about to be taken over by a consortium of international banks
[The Guardian]
The FA have assured David Moyes that Mike Riley is not a Man Utd fan
[The Sun]
For those of us who haven’t figured out why the hell anyone would want to use Twitter, Facebook still stands at the peak of the internet timewasting mountain.
Plenty of footballers are registered on the social networking site (including racist and plain stupid ones), but none of the 255 Alessandro Del Piero registered profiles are the Juventus captain. In particular, the profile which suggests he is a Nazi is not his:
Juventus legend Alessandro Del Piero is preparing to take legal action against the social networking site Facebook after a fake profile with his name and image appeared on it.
The profile had links to a Nazi propaganda group and it contains pictures of Del Piero, which have led the striker to consider taking action for defamation.
ANSA claims the player’s agent and brother, Stefano, has announced that Del Piero will be contacting his lawyers to protect his image. The player’s entourage have made it clear that the Nazi-linked profile has nothing to do with him, and they have stated that Del Piero has never had a profile on the Facebook site.
Shortly after the January transfer window closed on Monday night, Oasis played a concert at the Datchforum in Milan. Consistently outspoken band patriarch Noel Gallagher could have used he opportunity to lambast AC Milan hero Kaka for not joining his beloved Citizens, but the Mancunian chose to take the high road.
Before playing ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, Gallagher dedicated the song to “Signor Kaka”, making the opening refrain “Don’t you know you might find/ A better place to play” seem all the more pertinent.
The night before the gig, the Britrock legend heaped a huge lump of hindsight on the botched Kaka transfer when speaking to Controcampo:
“Kaka? To me it seemed like pure folly from the outset. Maybe in three years time he will regret not joining Manchester City.”
Spoiler bonus: Noel is very close friends with Alessandro Del Piero. Blink and you’ll miss him in the ‘Lord Don’t Slow Me Down’ video…
Just when you thought youd seen every hot Italian WAG…
In Italy during the 1990s, showgirl, actress and nude model Valeria Marini was an even bigger deal than pizza and political corruption. Combined.
The immensely popular blonde, nicknamed “Valeriona nazionale”, could probably be compared to Jordan (although Valeria is almost certainly less annoying). Much like her UK equivalent, she has also caught the attention of a few footballers - her greatest conquest to date is Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero.
Tiago exacts revenge on club by trapping old man in a loo
If Manchester Utd feel like they were given grief during the summer Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga, they should spare a thought for Juventus president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli.
Former Chelsea midfielder Tiago Mendes - pictured above ripping Guti’s hair out - has had a relatively uneventful time at Juve (read: “he’s been a bit crap”), and the Italian giants were keen to shift him to either Monaco or Everton. The Portuguese, however, insisted that he wanted to play Champions League football, and negotiations turned ugly. The Juventus president has sheepishly admitted that he was forcibly locked in a toilet at the club’s training ground by the aggressive star last week:
“The story of me being locked in the toilet by Tiago is true,” confessed Cobolli Gigli live on Sky Italia television.
“It’s a shame it got out, as this was something I told a friend in confidence. In any case, Alessandro Del Piero responded
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