In the summer of 2005, ages 21, I went back to Juventus FC which, at that time, was coached by Fabio Capello, and where, after a difficult start, I made my way as a left-back. At that time we had won the Italian Championship on the ground, while next Inter FC won it by adjudication.
I stayed with Juventus despite its relegation and, during the 2006/2007 second division championship I played as a first string. It was the first time I had been deployed in central defence by Didier Deschamps. Wearing the Juventus black-and-white shirt I scored my first goal in the Italian Championship during the match against Napoli and wound up the Second Division Championship with 32 matches played and 3 goals, including two goals scored in Arezzo on the day of promotion to First Division.
Returned to the First Division in 2007/2008, aged 23, after playing as a left-back for a while I was moved permanently to central defence.
I scored my first goal wearing the Juventus black-and-white shirt on September 2, 2007, during the second day of the Italian Championship in Cagliari-Juventus match, which was scored 2-3 thanks to the “victory-goal” I scored at the 90th minute of the match.
The championship ends with 30 game played and 3 goals (two goals against Lazio FC). We were ranked third in the First Division Championship: this allowed us to reach the Champions League qualification.
However, to me, the season was not at an end, since I was capped for the European Championship to Austria and Switzerland.
After my “main-character” performance during the European Championship, the 2008/2009 season opened with the Champions League, August 13, 2008 where I scored my first "European" goal against Artmedia Bratislava.
The Juventus season was made of ups and downs: exciting moments like the victory at the Bernabeu against Real are opposed to bad beats with Lazio in Italian Championship. Although we won no trophies, we ranked second in the First Division ahead of Milan thus improving compared to the 2007-2008 season.
This season had good basis to start with and to do well during all competitions, the gap with Inter FC and Milan FC had been reduced but, in order to plug it completely we had to create a strong and united group.
Winning a major trophy wearing this shirt: this was my priority! |
