Dwindling the list down to just five midfielders to represent the Juventus of the 21st century is an almost impossible task. The club has featured so many legendary players through the years.
The club has a true legacy of excellence, and the players who captured the imagination, those who made the play tick, were often found in midfield. In the vintage teams of the past, these are the five we have sitting above the rest.
Andrea Pirlo
When he left AC Milan, many thought Andrea Pirlo was done. He was 32, nearing the end of his career, and what little he had in physical prowess was surely going to deteriorate very quickly.
So, he promptly signed for Juve and became a legend for the club. The definition of cool, he was probably born with nerves of steel, naturally possessing what many athletes need through intensive mental training. With Pirlo, the higher the stress, the bigger the occasion, the better.
His technique, of course, was sublime. Aesthetically, it looked so effortless, like a maestro from a bygone era, when the 10 dictated the play, always several steps ahead of his opposition.
He led the team to four Serie A titles. He was MOTM in the 2006 World Cup Final. He discarded the English with ease, with a panenka penalty, once again adding to their national trauma.
Zinedine Zidane
Zizou needs no introduction. He’s not just one of the best Juventus has ever featured, he’s one of the best ever, period. He had everything, the technique, the strength, the cold-bloodedness, and he oozed class with every touch of the football.
With Juventus, he won the Serie A title and was named best foreign player in his first season. Even with players like Del Piero, Henry, Deschamps, Tudor, Conte, Trezeguet, Davids, Zidane was head and shoulders above the rest, just sublime.
He left in 2001 for Real Madrid, thus technically only just eligible to make this list, but when you have the quality of Zizou, it’d be criminal to leave him off it.