Giampiero Boniperti, honorary president of Juventus, of which he was a flag first as a player and then as a manager, died overnight in Turin of heart failure. The family announced it. Boniperti, who had retired from public life in recent years, would have turned 93 on July 4th. The funeral will take place in the next few days privately at the behest of the family.
Boniperti, a life in black and white
With the black and white shirt Boniperti played 459 official matches: 443 in Serie A, 13 in the Italian Cup, 3 in the Champions Cup. For a long time he was the record holder in league appearances for Juventus, overtaken in recent years by Del Piero and then by Buffon. And yet, when he was a child he would have been content – he had told some time ago – to wear it “once, to be happy forever”. He has had a lot of victories and satisfactions at Juventus, on the field, but above all behind the desk: five scudetti as a player, in the ‘Magic Trio’ with Charles and Sivori, all possible trophies, in Italy and in the world, in his twenty years since president.
The carreer
Boniperti was born in Barengo on 4 July 1928. In the postwar period he played for a season in Barengo, then he was registered by Momo Novarese but Juve immediately arrived and paid 60,000 lire between the two teams. He left Juventus 48 years later, when he left the actual presidency. He was a footballer from 1946 to 1961, then a manager, then president from 1971 to 1990, and finally CEO from 1991 to 1994. In the 1980s, the official mascot of the club was named Giampi in his honor. Since 2006 he was honorary president. “Juve – is another of his most beloved expressions – is not only the team of my heart, it is my heart”.
Style
As president, he left the stadium at the end of the first half, and followed the second on the radio; among the many challenges the most suffered were the derby against Turin, even if he scored more for the grenade than any other bianconero: 14 goals (13 in the league, 1 in the Italian Cup). “The derby – he explained, as a manager – consumes me, I love Juve too much and I have such respect for Juve that it cannot be otherwise”.
With the players he always had the knife on the side of the handle, but the time of the predominance of the prosecutors was far away. After the Mundial won by Italy in 82 in Spain, he had put out the squad, because they had asked for a raise, none other than Paolo Rossi, Tardelli and Gentile. A week off, a friendly missed, before being received again by Boniperti, and signing the contract, with the concession of a small tweak.
Of the many famous footballers he brought to Juventus, two of the most loved were Scirea and Del Piero; he brought a young Giovanni Trapattoni from Milan to Juve with whom he shared ten seasons with his first international successes. A bet won against the skeptics: with the ‘Trap’ at the helm, Juve immediately won the Scudetto with the record at 51, when the victories were still worth two points. He was a member of the European Parliament from ’94 to ’99. But his great, true and only passion has always been Juventus.
.
