Italian great Alessandro Del Piero’s decision to join Sydney FC put Australian football on the global stage – and wowed the local audience, writes Tom Smithies.
Right to the end, the result was in doubt – and, just like a game decided by a penalty shoot-out, it felt like not a word could be written in advance.
For two weeks in late August 2012 Sydney FC had pursued the signature of Alessandro Del Piero, on a contract to be the highest profile marquee the A-League had seen. The heart thought he might be tempted by an Australian lifestyle, but the head feared this was to prove just a fantasy in the end – and that the reality of interest from European clubs would sabotage the Sky Blues’ would-be coup.
Wednesday September 5 2012 was transfer deadline day with a difference – Del Piero had promised a decision on his future to Sydney FC CEO Tony Pignata and his partner in this footballing heist, agent Lou Sticca, after days of talks in the cool of a Turin autumn.
Back in Sydney the hours ticked by as we waited for Italy to wake up. The clock got dangerously close to newspaper deadline time, but this could potentially be a news story to put the A-League and Australian football onto a global stage and one that had to be in the paper. So in the end, this correspondent wrote two stories in preparation: an ADP-says-yes essay of excitement, and a rather more subdued news story about Del Piero deciding not to head to Australia.
Certainly Pignata and Sticca hadn’t skimped on their charm offensive. The Sunday before they had flown to Italy to sell the idea of what Del Piero could do for football in an emerging market. One day negotiations went on til midnight, and day by day they mapped out a contract with Del Piero’s brother and advisers, without ever really knowing if it would be signed. Other compelling clubs including Liverpool were in the mix.
Finally, around 6pm Sydney time on the Friday, there was a text message. Pignata and Sticca had walked into a meeting room and Del Piero was there in person to deliver the news – he was ready to sign the contract, and duly did. We pressed “send” on the story confirming this momentous moment.
Less than a fortnight later Del Piero was in Sydney, and the A-League was in the spotlight like never before. After a season where the signings of Brett Emerton and Harry Kewell had given a struggling competition something of a sugar hit, the arrival of one of the world’s greatest ever players was an injection of adrenaline like never before.
History shows that the reverberations were extensive – Newcastle signed Emile Heskey and the newly constituted Wanderers reversed opposition to a marquee by bringing in Shinji Ono. They were heady days laden with promise.
The extent to which that promise was manifested is a moot point. For Sydney FC there was a blizzard of publicity and marketing off the field that they could scarcely have dreamed of, but on the field Del Piero’s first campaign became a season of struggle for the team, for all that he was contributing goals and moments of brilliance.
For the league, though, the money Sydney outlaid was an unmitigated success. Sydney sold out games around the country, and brought unprecedented global interest. Media hung on his every word, and with a due sense of his own worth, ADP rationed those words to make sure that everyone counted.
The interviews he did give were gold standard. In one personal favourite, he recounted with glee going into pre-season training at Juventus just weeks after winning the World Cup with Italy in 2006 – beating, in the process, his French clubmates Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira and his strike partner for Juve David Trezuguet.
Two years before it had been the French players who were crowing after winning the European Championship over Italy. Which meant there was no way he would offer Trezuguet any obvious sympathy. “No, because we were drawing now – he had the European Championships, I had the World Cup … and the World Cup is better,” he laughed. “But no we never talk about it, we have too much respect for each other.”
It’s probably fair to say that age did catch up with Del Piero on the pitch near the end of his second season in the A-League, but only after providing a catalogue of great moments. His top-corner freekick on his home debut for Sydney still rates highly, but a brace against Brisbane a few weeks later showcased both his venomous shooting and his sublime skill.
Talking to Del Piero recently he has nothing but fond memories of Australia, and has enjoyed following the recent success of his erstwhile teammates Steve Corica and Rhyan Grant. It seems hardly credible that a decade has gone past since he signed that contract, but the impact of the day that ADP signed for Sydney FC will always be felt.
