27 years of Il Principino!

Happy Birthday Claudio!

The Little Prince of Turin turns 27 today and 20 of these wonderful years were in the black and white colour of The Old Lady albeit for one year when he was sent on loan to Empoli to get some valuable playing time. This experience may have taken him away from his beloved Juventus, yet it has made him even better and has made him into the extraordinary player that he is today.

His pace, work ethic, dribbling, precise passing and shooting has made him invaluable to his club and country and his ability to play well wither either foot has made him a versatile player and a perfect partner to fellow team- mates Andrea Pirlo and Arturo Vidal. This season has seen him only score 4 times in 17 appearances, maybe not a huge haul of goals like last season when he was only second in the goal tally to Alessandro Matri, yet there is still so much more to this hard tackling midfielder.

He may not be captain yet, but to many fans, he really is. He is only Vice Captain behind Giorgio Chiellini but he has the qualities of a captain. He is a humble lad and is willing to wait his turn. He has the ability to come out on the losing side and see the positive. Juventus had their 49 game unbeaten run wiped out when they lost to Inter in November, yet he refuses to despair and urged his team mates to view this as a “ wake up call” and reminds them never to lose focus. Juve went on to beat FC Nords” in the Champion League and eventually knocked out reigning champions, Chelsea. Now, how’s that for a pep talk?!

Earlier this month he did cause so controversy when talking about his dislike of Napoli. Which seemed to be out of character and the situation was blown way out of proportion thanks to the media! Many people including Napoli’s Coach, Walter Mazzarri came to his defence..of sort! The Napoli Coach had seen this as a compliment rather than an insult, claiming that it indicate that they were a team that could really upset Juve. You see, everyone has such high regards for Marchisio that even when he makes a blunder like this, they try to see a positive!

He has been compared to Italy legend Marco Tardilli so many times I’ve lost count! He sees this as a huge compliment but has always insisted that he wanted to make a name for himself and maybe one day future generations will be seen as the next Claudio Marchisio!

He will not be playing tonights game against Udinese due to an injury sustained in the game against Sampdoria, a game that saw him play on through the pain because he knew his team had no more subs left and only left the pitch in injury time, when the pain became to much. This is the kind of hard working, self sacrificing people that every team needs and it’s a shame that his team will be without him today.

Happy Birthday “ Il Principino” and let’s hope you get a great present in the form of an amazing victory tonight!