Who is Alessandro Del Piero?

Alessandro Del Piero (born 9 November 1974) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a deep-lying forward. Del Piero is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation and as one of the best Italian players of all time. He won the Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year award in 1998 and 2008 and received multiple nominations for the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year (FIFA is Fédération Internationale de Football Association).

A prolific goal-scorer, he is currently the second highest all-time Italian top-scorer in all competitions. Del Piero has scored in every competition in which he has participated. In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations.

Del Piero was born in Conegliano, Veneto, Italy. He regularly played football in the backyard with two friends as a child. All three dreamed of becoming footballers but only Del Piero would eventually manage to do so. While playing for the local youth team of San Vendemiano, Del Piero used to feature as a goalkeeper in order to gain more playing time.

When the Olympic Flame for the 2006 Winter Olympics passed through Turin, Del Piero was a torchbearer. He has an interest in sports outside of football, particularly basketball, and in turn has gained fans outside of football. Del Piero has a keen interest in music. He has recorded some of his own albums.