The Old Lady and AS Monaco have represented two important milestones in their careers for several football legends. These two historic clubs have seen great players wear both their shirts, especially since Juventus has a long tradition of French players in its ranks.
The long list can only begin with David Trezeguet He first wore the Monaco jersey on 7 February 1996, when the then coach, Jean Tigana, wanted the 18-year-old in the first team. It was a crucial year in his career also because he wore the colours of the French national team for the first time, winning the Under-18 European Championship as top scorer.
In the 1997-98 season he started as a starter for the red and white club, scoring eighteen goals in twenty-seven games. By this time it was impossible not to notice this young man from Argentina and Aimè Jacquet, the national team coach, realised that he was ready to defend the colours of France in the World Cup played at home. He thus became part of the squad that was destined to reach the highest peak in football, winning the 1998 France World Cup and becoming a legend at only twenty-one years old. In a few months his life changed, he was courted by the best clubs in Europe, but he was tied to the Monaco club until 2001. What followed was a not-so-exciting season for the French-Argentine centre forward, but he continued to work hard and grow technically, and ended the 1999-2000 season by scoring 22 goals that allowed Monaco to win the Scudetto well in advance. Despite this, his presence as a starter in the national team for the European Championships is uncertain, David competes for a shirt with Henry and Anelka and will only play 135 minutes, few, but enough to make his mark.
In fact, the magical 2000 season ended with the most famous Golden goal in football history, which shattered the Azzurri dream and instead gave David and France victory at Euro 2000.
It is at the end of this important year that President Campora decides to sell him to a big club and Luciano Moggi quickly closes the deal: five years and four and a half billion old lire per season, while forty-five billion will go into Monaco's coffers.
Trezeguet's Juventus story begins, soon to be renamed Trezegol by the fans for having formed, together with captain Del Piero, the strongest ever attacking pair in Juventus history.
He scored from the right and from the left, from the head, from the ground or in acrobatics, he surprised even the most shrewd rearguards on the counter-attack, and in the 2001-02 season he earned his first Scudetto in Juventus as top scorer, a goal that no Juventus player had managed to achieve since Platini.
The following season he did the encore and after two years, in 2005, he scored the decisive goal at San Siro for the tricolour, making everyone forget the missed penalty in the Champions League final in Manchester, again against the Rossoneri devils. Trezeguet is remembered not only as the foreigner who scored the most goals in the entire history of the Old Lady, an impressive 171, but also for not abandoning Juve after their relegation due to the Calciopoli case, making a great contribution to enable the team to rise immediately to Serie A.
But Trezegol is not the only French football legend to have worn both jerseys, a similar path has been that of Thierry Henry. He also grew up in Monaco's youth academy, scored 20 goals in five years with 105 appearances with the Monaco club and thus won the attention of Juve, who bought him in 1999 for a sum close to 12 million euros. However, with the Juventus club Henry failed to express himself at his best, also due to misunderstandings with the then Juventus coach Carlo Ancelotti. In fact, in the same year he was sold to Arsenal. for £10 million: and it was at the Gunners that Henry's legend began.
Among the former biancorossi who later moved to Juve, we cannot fail to mention one of the best defenders of all time, Lilian Thuram, who started his career at Monaco in 1991, where he only put together 15 appearances and one goal. In the summer of 2001 he moved from Parma to Juventus for 33 million euros, setting a record as the highest paid defender ever. With the Bianconeri club in five years he won four scudettos, recording 204 appearances and one goal.
Then there is another great French defender who made the last years of Juventus history: we are talking about Patrice Evra. Two Scudetti, as many Italian Cups and an Italian Super Cup for him, who was also French Champion with Monaco in 2003.
The opposite path was taken by the unforgettable scorer of the decisive penalty in the Champions League final in Rome in 1996: Vladimir Jugovic. The Serbian midfielder won, In addition to that trophy, a Championship, an Italian Super Cup and an Intercontinental Cup. Between 1995 and 1997 Vladimir played 77 matches and scored 10 goals; then in 2001/2002 he also played for Monaco, where he won the Coupe de la Ligue, playing a total of 22 times and scoring 1 goal.
Still going back in time, we cannot forget the talented Juventus trequartista Rui Barros, Barros played a total of 74 matches between 1988 and 1990, scoring 16 times in the league, Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup. Then, in 1990 and until 1993, Barros also played in Munich, playing only eight matches and scoring one goal.
Among the Italians who have worn both jerseys, we cannot fail to mention two great bombers Marco Di Vaio e Cristian Vieri. The striker Roman was in bianconero for two years, from 2002 to 2004, making 84 appearances and scoring 28 goals, between national and continental competitions, winning a Scudetto and an Italian Super Cup. He also had two seasons in the principality, 2005/06 and 2006/07, with 33 appearances and eight goals between Ligue 1 and Coupe de La Ligue. Bobo instead won with the Juventus club a Scudetto, a European Super Cup and an Intercontinental Cup with a total of 14 goals in 34 appearances. In the 2005/2006 season, however, the champion wore the red and white jersey, making 11 appearances and scoring five goals in the league, League Cup and Uefa Cup.
Today it is the turn of Paul Pogba He started again with the Monaco club, which bet on him despite a four-year period of injuries, court cases and a doping disqualification reduced from four years to 18 months. Coming back from a long forced stop, the French midfielder found in Monaco a team ready to welcome him and to bet strongly on him, putting an extremely complicated moment of his career behind him. The white and red club is in no hurry to field him, but is waiting for the former Juventus player to regain his best form. Paul will hardly be able to match the results he achieved with the Old Lady: four Championships, two Italian Cups and three Italian Super Cups, but we are certain that “the Octopus” will soon be back on the pitch ready to take the keys to Monaco's midfield and his own career.
By Emanuele Del Duca
