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AS far as I'm concerned, Australia isn't just a place; it's a state of mind. It's the culmination of a journey I made with my heart and mind even before I made it with a 24-hour plane flight.
A few years ago, after a defeat that was especially hard to bear, I decided to take a holiday in a place as far away from Italy as I could find on the map. It was an escape, with no precise destination.
Italian soccer star forward Alessandro Del Piero arrives at Sydney International Airport in 2012. Source: News Limited
The important thing was to go a long way away. Much later I did something similar, although for very different reasons. It didn't happen after a defeat, but after I raised a cup as captain of the Juventus football team for the last time. I didn't have to escape from anything then; there was absolutely no need to run away.
But there are times when escape and change need the same approach, times when we also need to switch off physically and distance ourselves from our familiar routines. It's a leap to another level, a new stage in a video game that is totally different from the previous ones, and therefore even more stimulating, and must be tackled with a full tank of energy.
Image of Alessandro Del Piero taking a free kick for the Padova youth team from his book, "Playing On. Source: Supplied
Yes, that's exactly it: Australia has recharged me and given me what I needed. After leaving Juventus I received many offers, mainly from Italy-far more than I would have expected. After nearly twenty years wearing the black-and-white jersey-which Italians either love or hate, but which in any case divides them-I didn't imagine so many teams would consider placing bets on someone who until a day earlier had been an opponent and the captain of the rival team of all teams.
Managers, coaches and colleagues made me feel really flattered. Probably they were hoping to take advantage of any feeling of revenge I might have had against Juventus, but I've never felt that. You don't erase the past, or at least I don't. I've always said I'd never play for another Italian team, despite my deep respect for the other clubs. I kept to that.
Book cover for Alessandro Del Piero - Playing On Source: Supplied
At first, in the early period as a player free from any contract, I evaluated offers on the basis of the competitive level of the championships involved and the possibility of participating in the main international events (the UEFA Champions League or the Libertadores, since going to South America was one of the opportunities I'd been offered).
Basically I was still reasoning with the mental¬ity of the 'old' Alessandro Del Piero. I still hadn't realised I'd already moved beyond that level of the video game: it had ended with that unforgettable day at the Juventus stadium and the most spontaneous, sincere and amazing tribute ever from the black-and-white supporters.
Alessandro Del Piero of Italy kisses the World Cup trophy in 2006 (/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images
I hadn't yet realised that I actually wanted something different. Not something more: that wasn't possible. I've been privileged in winning everything, both at club level and with the Italian national team in 2006, when we won the World Cup in Germany. For twenty years I raced along at 300 kilometres an hour, with a single obsession: to achieve perfection, which in sport means to win. And I left with a win.
What else could possibly give me those same feelings again? What could stand up to comparison without bringing on endless attacks of nostalgia? I would never have wanted to keep on playing and keep looking back instead of looking ahead as I'd always done. Better to stop. And so, while I was on holiday and trying to reorganise my thoughts after the flood of emotions that had overwhelmed me, I realised there was nothing more I could have.
Alessandro Del Piero in action for Sydney FC (Brett Hemmings/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images
No, not more. I had to look for something different, a new experience that would make it worth sweating it out and training, while still using all my experience, with the head of an adult and the heart of a kid whose only purpose in life was to run around after a football. So my mindset changed: I stopped looking for a team and a championship that would allow me to relive what I'd already had.
I started weighing up the proposals that offered something more than a contract, more than money, more than the opportunity to go back to winning what I'd already won. Not a new team, but a new life. A new state of mind: that's the reason for Sydney FC, for Sydney, and for Australia. A new life.
Alessandro Del Piero thanks the Sydney FC fans (Mark Evans) Source: News Limited
Australia stands for a before and an after. Even once I'm no longer here I'll always remember this interlude as a watershed time in my life, and not only in my professional life. Before this, I was used to being Alessandro Del Piero all the time, on and off the field. I have always deliberately (and I would say proudly) kept my public side separate from my private one: Del Piero the footballer separate from Alessandro, the father, husband, son, brother, friend . . . But in Italy, and in Europe generally, outside the four walls of my home it's impossible not to be Del Piero.
Alessandro Del Piero pulling the strings for Sydney FC (Brett Hemmings/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images
Mind you, I'm not complaining: the attention, and especially the show of affection I receive from people, make me feel privileged; I never forget that were no-one to rejoice at my goals, scoring them would not be worth the trouble. But I don't deny that at times, and especially since my children were born, I've become more persistent about looking for 'normality'.
And that is what I've found in Australia. I've rediscovered things I had almost forgotten: going to the park with my children (something I did with my father, when I was the child), walking around the city, being a tourist where I live, taking time for my family and for myself, and experiencing a new dimension I hadn't known before coming to Sydney.
Alessandro Del Piero of Sydney FC celebrates with fans (Brett Hemmings/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images
In my life as a Sydney FC player many of my habits have changed; living my everyday life in a country so very different from Italy enriches me. This is not a value judgement; it's simply a fact. In Australia we are virtually all migrants-some who came early and some who came later. I've met so many Italians, for example, that some days I feel I'm still in Turin.
Each one of them has their own special story and they all deserve a book like this one. It's real life. Their love for Italy, even from such a distance, makes me even prouder to be Italian and at the same time makes me appreciate this country, which has succeeded in establishing its own identity partly through the diverse origins of the people who live here.
Sydney's Alessandro Del Piero fully focused. (Pic Brett Costello) Source: News Limited
This country is a great example: it has harnessed diversity as an asset without seeing it as an obstacle, and this is the basis of its community life and the cornerstone of a shared value system. It's some¬thing you pick up very quickly, when you go shopping, when you take your children to school, at restaurants and on the training pitch. It's a lesson I want to carry with me forever, and I'd like my children to do the same.
I realised at once, after just a few days Down Under, that I had made the right choice. On and off the field. I think all sportspeople should try to spend a period of their professional lives in Australia, because for anyone in my profession it's a sort of paradise.
Alessandro Del Piero celebrates a Sydney FC win with fans. Source: News Limited
What I noticed immediately is the general assumption that sport is a fundamental part of young people's education, and more broadly a cultural factor that is always present in people's lives. Here the correspondence between physical activity and wellbeing is well and truly apparent, you notice it very quickly.
In one of my first interviews with an Italian newspaper after I arrived in Australia, I said that one of the things that struck me most in Sydney was seeing how many people were pursuing sports activities early in the morning, at the break of day when I was heading for the training pitch..
Alessandro Del Piero with his famous tongue out celebration (Pic by Brett Costello) Source: News Limited
Clearly, when people have stopped being high-level athletes and become spectators, they obviously possess a superlative ability to appreciate the athletic and technical skills of other sportspeople. Here in Australia they love being there in person, being part of the event and getting totally involved, with great respect for the essence of sport but at the same time barracking and following the contest with fire and passion.
Alessandro Del Piero during his team at Juventus. Source: Getty Images
Don't think The Cove at Sydney FC is any less vociferous than the most enthusiastic curva I've known in the course of my European career . . . But 'anti'-barracking, for example, the organised and systematic booing of opponents to put them off, doesn't exist here.
And I'm convinced this is linked to a generalised ability to appreciate the value of sport, not just its results and not just barracking for your team. This is true for all sports disciplines, not only those with a great Australian tradition but also the newer ones like football that are gradually receiving more space and attention.
The welcome I was given was extraordinary. In every stadium I was applauded, in every city the Australian public showed its appreciation and its eagerness to see me on the field. Lots of people, especially but not only Italian migrants, have thanked me for making this choice. Actually, I'm the one who is grateful to them for all the emotions they are giving me and for everything I'm learning from this great adventure. The renewal of my contract with Sydney FC for a second A-League season shows how confident I am about this project and this Australian experience. I will do all I can to help the team grow further, improving on last season's results, and to help the continuing expansion of the Australian football movement, especially among young people and children who want to start this marvellous sport at an early age.
I'm not afraid of being accused of being narcissistic if I confess that one of the main reasons behind my accepting the Sydney FC offer was their absolute determination to get me. From the first meeting they made me feel truly important, by their actions and not just with their words, and above all they always linked the project to the Australian football movement. Of course I play for Sydney and my objective-and their reason for signing me on- is to make my team better and help it grow, but there's something more. From the moment I arrived at the airport and from the first training session, not to mention my first game, I had the honour and the responsibility of being celebrated as an emblem of football and of sports in general, a symbol of the growth of the whole Australian football movement. That is no small thing: it's almost the ultimate accomplishment one can hope for in one's career. Almost, though, because it's a career that is not yet over. The finale has yet to be written.
Playing On by Alessandro Del Piero (Allen & Unwin) will be published on Wednesday 20 November. RRP $22.99
Thanks to Bookworld, News Corp Australia and Fox Sports readers can order now and receive a 20% discount and free shipping. Click here!
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