Alessandro Del Piero - the power in a legend's voice

“Legend” is an over-used word, nowadays. Often we see that lofted tag being given to players and coaches who might not have the mettle to be glorified as such. Yet, anyone who knows football well enough will know the fact that Alessando Del Piero is a true juggernaut of the game. Personally, he is a player whom I loved to see play as a child, and as the events of this past few days came to notice, it felt like the legacy of this great man got exhalted a good bit.

Lets check his past records to settle how big a titan he is in the footballing sphere, and in the hearts of Juve fans from all over the world. He is already the record holder for maximum club appearance for The Old Lady, as he is their top scorer domestically and in Europe. Also, he was included in the FIFA 100, which is a great achievement for any individual. Yet realistically, numbers and statistics don’t really amount to much when looking at how much the player is respected by every soul that watches the beautiful game.

But, what the great man did some days ago can be termed as downright miraculous, and it may very well eclipse his other achievements, due to the amount of emotions involved, and the spectacular nature of the events that occurred. The Italian football legend managed to wake a girl from a two-week come, just by speaking to her.

The legacy grows stronger

Giada Scalise, a girl from Ceredigion, Crotone, fell into the coma while watching her favorite team Juventus play, on the 22nd of january. She suffered from a brain hamorrhage, that saw her in a pacific state for as long as two weeks. The nurses tried everything to try and get the school-girl’s situation to improve. The saddened family then asked their beloved club Juventus to do anything they could, to help their little supporter in her struggle to better health.

Juventus happily obliged, and Del Piero sent the girl a recorded tape saying, “Hello Giada, this is Alessandro del Piero. I hope you’ll wake up and come back to us as soon as possible to watch many of our games.” The nurses kept playing the tapes, and slowly, there were signs of reaction. His words were re-played to the little girl on a daily basis, and the rehab that started with a small shake of the hands turned into a full fledged come-back. The girl returned to her senses within 24 hours of the first signs of consciousness, and demanded ice-cream to help her return to her jolly state. The girl’s father, Francesco was convinced that Del Piero’s voice had worked magic, and helped her daughter recover completely.

In the end, this little piece of happy news from the Italian legend seems like a breath of fresh air, when one is surrounded by stories of deceit in football each day. Columns about sex scandals, racist remarks, wild youngsters and lack of respect float up too often, and Del Piero needs to be saluted to offer a bright exception to it all. He showed that for some people, goodwill and humanity is still more important than most other things. And the girl was also instrumental in showing that the spirit of football, and the love for football gods is what true fans still live by.