Juventus Football Club (BIT: JUVE) (from Latin iuventus: youth), commonly referred to as Juventus and colloquially as Juve, are a professional Italian football club based in Turin, Piedmont. The club is the third oldest of its kind in the country and has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 2006–07 season, in the top flight First Division (knowns as Serie A since 1929). Founded in 1897 as Sport Club Juventus by a group of Torinese young students and linked to industrial Agnelli family since 1923, the club has become a symbol of Italian culture and italianità (Italianity),reflected, among others, in its contribution to the national team, uninterrupted since the second half of 1920s and recognised as one of the largest and most important in the world, and, due to ideological politics and socio-economic origin of the club's sympathisers and their massive presence of all over the country and, abroad, mainly in countries with a significant presence of Italian immigrants, through its fan base, larger than any other Italian club and one of the largest world-wide. Juventus are historically the most successful team in Italian football and one of the most successful and recognised in the world. According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, an organization recognised by FIFA, Juventus were Italy's best club of the 20th century and the second most successful European club in the same period. The club currently ranks third in Europe and sixth in the world with the most international titles won officially recognised by their respective association football confederation and FIFA. In 1985, Juventus became the first club in the history of European football to have won all three major UEFA competitions, the European Champion Clubs' Cup, the (now-defunct) UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup (first Italian and Southern European side to win the competition). After their triumph in the Intercontinental Cup the same year, Juventus also became the first football team ever—remain the only one at present—to have won all possible confederation competitions and the club world title.
Juventus have played in black and white striped shirts, with white shorts, sometimes black shorts since 1903. Originally, they played in pink shirts with a black tie, but only because they had been sent the wrong shirts. The father of one of the players made the earliest shirts, but continual washing faded the colour so much that in 1903 the club sought to replace them. Juventus asked one of their team members, Englishman John Savage, if he had any contacts in England who could supply new shirts in a color that would better withstand the elements. He had a friend who lived in Nottingham, who being a Notts County supporter, shipped out the black and white striped shirts to Turin. Juve have worn the shirts ever since, considering the colors to be aggressive and powerful. Juventus Football Club's official emblem has undergone different and small modifications since the 1920s. The last modification of the Old Lady's badge took place before 2004–05 season. At the present time, the emblem of the team is a black-and-white oval shield of a type used by Italian ecclesiastics. It is divided in five vertical stripes: two white stripes and three black stripes, inside which are the following elements; in its upper section, the name of the society superimposed on a white convex section, over golden curvature (gold for honour). The white silhouette of a charging bull is in the lower section of the oval shield, superimposed on a black old French shield; the charging bull is a symbol of the Comune di Torino. There is also a black silhouette of a mural crown above the black spherical triangle's base is a reminiscence to Augusta Tourinorum, the old city of the Roman era which the present capital of Piedmont region is its cultural heiress. In the past, the convex section of the emblem had a blue color (another symbol of Turin) and, furthermore, its shape was concave. The old French shield and the mural crown, also in the lower section of the emblem, had a considerably greater size with respect to the present. The two Golden Stars for Sport Excellence were located above the convex and concave section of Juventus' emblem. During the 1980s, the club emblem was the silhouette of a zebra, to both sides of the equide's head, the two golden stars and, above this badge, forming an arc, the club's name. During its history, the club has acquired a number of nicknames, la Vecchia Signora (the Old Lady) being the best example. The "old" part of the nickname is a pun on Juventus which means "youth" in Latin. It was derived from the age of the Juventus star players towards the middle of 1930s. The "lady" part of the nickname is how fans of the club affectionately referred to it before the 1930s. The club is also nicknamed la Fidanzata d'Italia (the Girlfriend of Italy), because over the years it has received a high level of support from Southern Italian immigrant workers (particularly from Naples and Palermo), who arrived in Turin to work for FIAT since the 1930s. Other nicknames include; i bianconeri (the black-and-whites),le zebre (the zebras) in reference to Juventus' colors and i gobbi (the hunchbacks), because "old ladies" usually have hunched backs.
The Trapattoni-era was highly successful in the 1980s; the club started the decade off well, winning the league title three more times by 1984. This meant Juventus had won 20 Italian league titles and were allowed to add a second golden star to their shirt, thus becoming the only Italian club to achieve this. Around this time the club's players were attracting considerable attention; Paolo Rossi was named European Footballer of the Year following his contribution to Italy's victory in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, where he was named player of the tournament. Frenchman Michel Platini was also awarded the European Footballer of the Year title for three years in a row; 1983, 1984 and 1985, which is a record. Juventus are the only club to have players from their club winning the award in four consecutive years. Indeed it was Platini who scored the winning goal in the 1985 European Cup final against Liverpool, however this was marred by a tragedy which changed European football. The Heysel Stadium disaster, in which 39 people (mostly Juventus fans) were killed when a stadium wall collapsed, has been called by UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson in 2004, "the darkest hour in the history of the UEFA competitions", and resulted in the banning of all English clubs from European competition. With the exception of winning the closely contested Italian Championship of 1985–86, the rest of the 1980s were not very successful for the club. As well as having to contend with Diego Maradona's Napoli, both of the Milanese clubs, Milan and Internazionale, won Italian championships. In 1990, Juventus moved into their new home, the Stadio delle Alpi, which was built for the 1990 World Cup. The Juventus youth set-up has been recognised as one of the best in Italy for producing young talents. While not all graduates made it to the first team, many have enjoyed successful careers in the Italian top flight. Under long-time coach Vincenzo Chiarenza, the Primavera (Under-20) squad enjoyed one of its successful periods, winning all age-group competitions from 2004 to 2006. The youth system is also notable for its contribution to the Italian national senior and youth teams. 1934 World Cup winner Gianpiero Combi, 1936 Gold Medal and 1938 World Cup winner Pietro Rava, Giampiero Boniperti, Roberto Bettega, 1982 World Cup hero Paolo Rossi and more recently, Domenico Criscito and Claudio Marchisio are a number of former graduates who have been capped at the full international level. Like Dutch club Ajax and many English Premier League clubs, Juventus operates several satellite clubs and soccer schools outside of the country (i.e. United States, Canada, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Switzerland) and numerous camps in the local region to expand talent scouting.
After the first two years (1897 and 1898), during which Juventus played in the Parco del Valentino and Parco Cittadella, their matches were held in the Piazza d'Armi Stadium until 1908, except in 1905, the first year of the scudetto, and in 1906, years in which it played quickly Corso Re Umberto. From 1909 to 1922, Juventus played their internal competitions at Corso Sebastopoli Camp, and before moving the following year to Corso Marsiglia Camp where they remained until 1933, winning four league titles. At the end of 1933 they began to play at the new Stadio Mussolini stadium inaugurated for the 1934 World Championships. After the Second World War, the stadium was renamed as Stadio Comunale Vittorio Pozzo. Juventus played home matches at the ground for 57 years, a total of 890 league matches. The team continued to host training sessions at the stadium until July 2003. From 1990 until the 2005–06 season, the Torinese side contested their home matches at Stadio delle Alpi, built for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, although in very rare circumstances, the club played some home games in other stadia such as Renzo Barbera at Palermo, Dino Manuzzi at Cesena and the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza at Milan. In August 2006, the bianconeri returned to play in the Stadio Comunale, now known as Stadio Olimpico, after the restructuring of the stadium for the 2006 Winter Olympics onwards. In November 2008 Juventus announced that they will invest around €100 million to build a new stadium on the site of the old Delle Alpi ground. Unlike the Delle Alpi there will not be a running track; instead the pitch will be only 8.5 meters away from the stands. The planned capacity is 41,000. Work began during spring 2009 and is scheduled for completion in time for the start of the 2011–12 season.
Felipe Massa (born 25 April 1981) is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver. He finished second in the 2008 Drivers' World Championship, and is under contract to race for Scuderia Ferrari until the end of the 2012 season. Born in São Paulo, Massa is a Brazilian whose grandfather emigrated from Cerignola, Italy. Massa began karting when he was 8 years old, finishing fourth in his first season. He continued in national and international championships for 7 years, and in 1998 moved into Formula Chevrolet, finishing the Brazilian championship in fifth place. During the following season, he won 3 of the 10 races and claimed the championship. In 2000, he moved to Europe to compete in the Italian Formula Renault series, winning both the Italian and the European Formula Renault championships that year. He could have moved to Formula Three, but instead chose the Euro Formula 3000, where he won 6 of the 8 races and the championship. He was then offered a Formula 1 test with the Sauber team, who signed him for 2002. He also drove for Alfa Romeo in the European Touring Car Championship as a guest driver. In his rookie year in Formula 1, Massa was paired with 1999 International Formula 3000 champion Nick Heidfeld. He proved he was a competitive driver, but made several mistakes, including spinning off the track several times. Nevertheless, Massa scored 4 championship points in his first season, his best result a 5th place at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya. He suffered a one race suspension late in the season, forcing him to miss the United States Grand Prix. Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Sauber's former driver drove for Massa in his place. Massa returned to the driver's seat for the Japanese Grand Prix, but Sauber confirmed that Frentzen would partner Heidfeld in 2003, leaving Massa without a race seat. Instead, He spent a year with Sauber's engine suppliers, Ferrari, gaining experience by testing for the championship-winning team. Sauber then re-signed Massa for the 2004 season. In 2004, he scored 12 of Sauber's 34 points, his best result was a fourth place at the Belgian Grand Prix. Giancarlo Fisichella scored the team's other 22 points. Massa remained at Sauber in 2005. Though he scored only 11 points, he outpaced his teammate Jacques Villeneuve through most of the season, and beat him in the drivers' championship. After Sauber was taken over by BMW, Massa was released and replaced by his former team-mate Heidfeld. In 2006, Massa re-joined Ferrari, paired with Michael Schumacher.
Massa topped the time sheets on five occasions and set the fastest lap for four circuits during the 2007 pre-season testing. However, his 2007 season began with problems. At the season opening Australian Grand Prix, he suffered a gearbox problem during qualifying and required an engine change. Massa started the race from 22nd position due to these problems and a 10-grid-slot penalty for the engine change. He employed a one pitstop strategy for the race and finished in sixth place. Massa endured a terrible first race weekend of his third year at Ferrari. The team, surprisingly, looked off the pace as Massa qualified fourth and his race was even less successful, spinning off at the first corner of the first lap, on lap 26 he collided with David Coulthard and eventually retired due to engine failure. Felipe Massa gave Ferrari's 2009 challenger – the F60 – its shakedown test at Mugello on 12 January 2009. Ferrari confirmed that it would equip the F60 with KERS several days before the season opening Australian Grand Prix. Friday practice session did not begin so well for Massa as he recorded the 7th and 10th fastest times. Saturday qualifying fared little better as he lined up 7th (although was promoted to 6th as Glock's Toyota was disqualified). In the race the Ferrari's poor ability to handle its tyres lead to their aggressive race strategy of super soft/medium/medium compounds paying little dividends after the first 6 laps (where the Ferraris moved to the front of the pack). Although Massa managed to stay in the top 3 for the first half of the race, the exceptionally quick graining of the super soft tyres forced him into a 3 stop strategy. Before he was able to complete the race a mechanical problem forced him to retire. Massa started the 2010 season with a second place finish in Bahrain behind team-mate Fernando Alonso, despite having to save fuel in the last 22 laps.At the Australian Grand Prix, Massa was appointed a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association. Massa qualified fifth for the race, which was marked by changeable weather conditions and ten non-finishers. He finished third, largely managing to steer clear of the chaos. After the race, Massa commented cheerfully that it had been an unusually good start to the season for him. Third was his best ever finish at Melbourne. After a storming drive to 7th from 21st on the grid in Malaysia, he took the lead in the world championship. However, a disappointing ninth in China meant that he dropped back to sixth in the standings.Massa will again drive for Scuderia Ferrari in 2011, and again will be partnered by Fernando Alonso. He drove his new car – the Ferrari F150th Italia – for the first time on 29 January 2011, undertaking a shakedown of the car at the Fiorano Circuit.
Felipe Massa married Anna Raffaela Bassi on November 30, 2007, in São Paulo, Brazil. The couple's first son, Felipinho (Felipe Bassi Massa), was born on November 30, 2009. Massa is a friend of Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille, who has dedicated several models of his watches to him (RM-005FM, RM-011). Nicolas Todt, son of Ferrari's past team principal and current FIA president Jean Todt, is Massa's manager. Though Massa supports Brazilian football team São Paulo FC, he also supports the Turkish football team Fenerbahçe that was formerly coached by Zico. On 24 August 2007, Massa said: "Zico was my childhood idol, Roberto Carlos is my best friend. I am a Fenerbahçe fan, because it is just like a Brazilian team. I love Turkey, as I won my first championship race in Turkey, it has special value for me." Massa holds a charity kart race, Desafio Internacional das Estrelas (International Challenge of the Stars) every year since 2005. Notably, many active top level Brazilian drivers have competed in the event, such as Formula One drivers Rubens Barrichello and Nelson Piquet, Jr., drivers who competed in American open wheel events such as Tony Kanaan, Mario Moraes, Felipe Giaffone, Vitor Meira, Roberto Moreno, and Gil de Ferran, and Stock Car Brasil champion Cacá Bueno. In addition, Brazilian motorcycle racer Alex Barros has competed. Michael Schumacher and Luca Badoer joined the Brazilian contingent in 2007. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Jeff Gordon and Jaime Alguersuari have also participated.
