Following the infamous Calciopoli (or Farsopoli depending on your viewpoint) scandal in the summer of 2006, Juventus were relegated to Serie B with a 17-point penalty.
In the subsequent weeks following the announcement of the punishments, a whole host of world class and top-class players left the Old Lady.
The most prominent to depart were World Cup winners Fabio Cannavaro and Gianluca Zambrotta, World Cup finalists Lilian Thuram and Patrick Vieira, as well as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Emerson.
These players were immediately denounced by many Juventus fans as “traitors”, despite all the success they had helped bring to the club during their time in Turin.
Meanwhile, the likes of Gianluigi Buffon, Pavel Nedved, David Trezeguet and Alessandro Del Piero were embraced as symbolic heroes after choosing to stick with the club in Serie B.
However is it correct for the exiles to be regarded as “traitors”?
First of all it must be remembered that financially the Calciopoli crisis badly crippled the club. The loss of Serie A and Champions League revenue, sponsorship money and other endorsements is almost impossible to estimate.
It was clear that some top players would have to be sold in order to recuperate some of this lost income, and if you look at Juventus’ first-team from 2005/06 virtually 75 per cent of the line-up was world class. Thus it was inevitable that some big stars were going to leave.
Then of course there is the age situation. I have total sympathy for Cannavaro, Thuram, Zambrotta and Emerson wanting to leave the club.
All four players, in particular the former two were moving towards the end of their careers and had very little time left at the very top.
Cannavaro, although he has struggled at times for Real Madrid, has still maintained his top levels for Italy. However 18 months down the line, the 36-year-old Thuram and the 31-year-old Emerson are a shadow of their former greatness, and are clearly past their best.
All four of these players have also never won the Champions League, indeed in the case of Cannavaro, Thuram and Zambrotta, it is the only real major honour that is lacking from their trophy cabinets.
If they had stayed at Juventus, it would have been until 2009 until they had another chance to win the competition, by which time they would be 35, 36 and 32 respectively, and once again would all clearly be past their best, and possibly not even in the team.
Thus it is completely understandable that they should wish to leave the Bianconeri in order to present themselves the only hope remaining of winning Europe’s premier club competition.
Even more importantly, and Juve fans often forget this, all four of these players moved to Spain. By signing for Real Madrid and Barcelona, the quartet were not strengthening a potential Italian rival, and given Juve’s absence from the Champions League for two seasons, as well as the age of the players again, they were not strengthening a European challenger either.
With regards to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Patrick Vieira things are different, and there can be no doubts whatsoever that the two players are certainly “traitors”.
Although Vieira has been injured for long spells, Ibra has been a huge factor, probably the most important reason why Inter are now such a dominant force in Italian football.
The pair not only seriously weakened Juve by leaving, but they provided Inter with a strong backbone from which to build such a powerful and governing machine.
The truth is that Ibrahimovic and Vieira could have said no to the Nerazzurri, and like Cannavaro and Co., signed for a Spanish team.
Real Madrid for instance were, and still are, huge admirers of Ibrahimovic, and launched a multi-million pound bid for the Swede in the summer of 2005.
Some reports suggested that they were prepared to pay more than the world record €76m fee they forked out for Zinedine Zidane back in 2001.
However in the end Ibra signed for Inter for a paltry €24m. Are you telling me that they suddenly were no longer interested in signing possibly the world’s best support striker for a third of the sum they were prepared to pay 12 months earlier?
And furthermore can it be possible that Juve would rather sell him to Inter, a club that he is likely to stay at for the next five or six years, rather than ship him off to Madrid or Barcelona where as mentioned above he will have no direct influence on them.
Something certainly doesn’t add up.
Nevertheless whatever the reasons, it is clear to me that Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Thuram and Emerson should be appreciated and thanked by the Juventus supporters for everything they did at the club, while Vieira and Ibrahimovic deserve to be tagged as “traitors”.
Finally if there is any possibility of Zambrotta returning to Turin, Juve fans should work together to ensure that this happens.
The 30-year-old is one of the best wing-backs in world football, and would help take the Bianconeri on to the next level. For Juve supporters to protest against a possible transfer would be a huge mistake.
What are your views on this topic? Should the Juve deserters be regarded as traitors? If so, are they all traitors or only Ibrahimovic and Vieira? Goal.com wants to know your views on this topic
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