Gianluca Pessotto

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Personal information
Gianluca Pessotto

Date of birth	August 11, 1970 (age 36)
Place of birth	Latisana, Italy
Height	1.75 m
Nickname	Pessottino, Pesso
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	retired
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1989-1991 1991-1992 1992-1993 1993-1994 1994-1995 1995-2006	Varese Massese Bologna Verona Torino Juventus	64 (1) 22 (1) 21 (1) 34 (3) 32 (1) 243 (2)
National team
1996-2002	Italy	22 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Gianluca Pessotto (born August 11, 1970) is an Italian former footballer who played with Juventus for the majority of his career. A versatile player, Pessotto was able to play as a full back or midfielder.

1 Career
2 Pessotto's fall from a building
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Career

Born in Latisana, in the province of Udine, Pessotto started his career in the A.C. Milan youth system. As a player, Pessotto spent time with Varese (1989-1991), Massese (1991-92), Bologna (1992-93), Hellas Verona (1993-94), Torino (1994-95) and Juventus (1995-2006). He is one of many experienced players who have been at Juventus for a lengthy period of time. Injuries and other issues in the closing stages of his career limited his first-team opportunities to mainly being used a substitute to Jonathan Zebina.

Pessotto retired at the end of the 2005/2006 Serie A season, and was successively appointed as the new Juventus team manager.

Among his achievements as a football player, Pessotto won the UEFA Champions League in 1996 (played in 4 UCL Finals), the UEFA SuperCup in 1996, the Intercontinental Cup in 1996, 1 UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2000, 6 Scudetti (1997-1998-2002-2003-2005-2006) and 4 Italian SuperCup (1997-1998-2002-2003) with Juventus FC.

For Italy, Pessotto was capped 22 times. He played for his country at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000. In Euro 2000, Pessotto scored a penalty in the shootout win over, Holland which sent Italy into the final. However, he only picked up a runners-up medal, as Italy lost after conceding a last minute equaliser, and then conceded a David Trézéguet golden goal.

His number 7, has recently been retired by Juventus after his retirement.

[edit] Pessotto's fall from a building

Pessotto survived a 15-metre fall from a a fourth story window at the headquarters of Juventus, on 27 June 2006. As he was holding a rosary, it is believed that he was attempting suicide. ^[1]

His suicide attempt coincides with widening investigations regarding possible match fixing amongst Italy's top clubs including Juventus, where Pessotto is Sports Director. Though not implicated in the scandal, Pessotto was said to be feeling depressed and unhappy with his role at the club. ^[2] ^[3] He suffered multiple fractures and internal bleeding from the fall. On 17th July 2006 the medical staff declared him out of danger and stated that he will not have long-term mental damage or physical paralysis. ^[4]

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However other hypotheses have been proposed, suggesting that the "attempted suicide" is a wrong road, not more credible than other roads. Their backers observe, beside the very suspect circumstance of the "rosary in the hands" and Pessotto's well-known stability of mind as a soccer player, and his affection for his two daughters and wife, and the complex legal problems that were affecting Juventus F.C. at that time, and that he fell right in Juventus' headquarters, and the fact that he didn't leave any message... and so on, should not exclude other hypotheses. Instead, right from the day after the fall, everyone in the press was sure that this was an attempted suicide. Yet, even now, after months from the fall, Pessotto's wife cannot believe the official version. The newspaper "Il Tempo" (10/12/2006), reports that she declared that "He himself is unable to explain this to himself, he didn't want to die, he wasn't depressed", and that "he didn't want to jump [...] If he had been lucid he would have never done that. He would have never left the children without their father. He himself is unable to understand how it happened. He doesn't remember anything of that day and he cannot find a reason. But are we sure that he did jump?" The most extreme alternative hypotheses tend to link the episode to the legal inquiries involving Juventus-Calciopoli (corruption in "Serie A" Italian soccer).^[5]

[edit] References

^ "Finally, joy for Italy", Belfast Telegraph, 5 July 2006.
^ "Pessotto was depressed - Wife", Teamtalk.com, 28 June 2006.
^ "Italians see Pessotto in hospital", BBC, 29 June 2006.
^ "Pessotto meets his sons in hospital", ANSA, 17 July 2006.
^ "Pessotto e Calciopoli: perché l’ipotesi del tentato suicidio è sbrigativa e da rivedere", ASP-Indymedia, 29 June 2006.

[edit] External links

[1] Report on Channel 4 Website.

	Italy squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Toldo \| 2 Bergomi \| 3 P. Maldini \| 4 Cannavaro \| 5 Costacurta \| 6 Nesta \| 7 Pessotto \| 8 Torricelli \| 9 Albertini \| 10 Del Piero \| 11 D. Baggio \| 12 Pagliuca \| 13 Cois \| 14 Di Biagio \| 15 Di Livio \| 16 Di Matteo \| 17 Moriero \| 18 R. Baggio \| 19 Inzaghi \| 20 Chiesa \| 21 Vieri \| 22 Buffon \| Coach: C. Maldini