As the story goes, when he joined training as a new arrival to the club, he was paired up with Michel Platini for a technical drill. Even Fiorentina’s journeyman manager, Stefano Pioli, can harbor some ill-feeling toward Juventus from his playing days. When the Bianconeri came to visit the Artemio Franchi at the beginning of December, they were guaranteed a hot reception. Federico Bernardeschi is the latest footballer to travel the well-worn path from Florence to Turin. After the Florentines spent years investing in and rehabilitating a young Roberto Baggio, Juve swooped in and spent a then world-record fee for him. So, if there is a player in purple that looks half-decent, it won’t be long before he dons the famous black and white stripes. The roots of the rivalry go back to the 1981/82 Serie A title race, but it is implicitly about money the Zebre always have it and Fiorentina never does. The Tuscans hate to lose players to them. No club finds Juventus’s poaching of talent more galling than Fiorentina. Alex Sandro is regularly linked with a move to Chelsea, but Juve feel no pressure to accept anything other than a massive bid from the Londoners. When Paul Pogba left Turin, Manchester United had to pay a world-record fee. This financial stability also allows the club to resist interest in their assets from abroad. Paulo Dybala was another gifted player snapped up after he refused a contract extension at Palermo. Or when Miralem Pjanic handed in a transfer request at Roma, Juve was ready to meet his release clause. After Napoli pushed them all the way 2016 with Gonzalo Higuain scoring 36 league goals, the northerners simply paid whatever crazy price Aurelio De Laurentiis slapped on him. Seven scudetti in a row shows not just how much more buying power Juventus has over its domestic rivals, but also how ruthlessly it has exploited that advantage. Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich enjoy a similar financial superiority in their respective leagues, but even they have stumbled in recent years with PSG finishing second in 2017 and the Bavarian giants struggling to catch Dortmund this season. As a result, the Old Lady can pluck talent from smaller clubs with impunity. No other teams in the league can even come close to competing financially. Individually, he earns more than half of the teams in Serie A. That figure does not include his €31 million annual salary which makes him far and away the highest player in the country. The Italian champions paid Real Madrid €100 million, a quarter of the club’s revenue from the previous year, for him. Cristiano Ronaldo’s blockbuster move to Juventus of Turin over the summer is proof of that. These days the money has moved north in Italy, and this is also true for football. This meeting of art and finances kick-started the Renaissance in Western Europe. Florence was the financial center of Europe and the great artists of the region converged on the city to make their living. Without a commission, the architect’s famous octagonal dome would never have come into existence. ![]() ![]() What motivated the designer, Filippo Brunelleschi, to revolutionize engineering and push beyond the limits of the architecture of the era? Glory and artistic immortality? Undoubtedly. Construction of the dome that looms over the city took 16 years to finish. Look at the skyline of Florence, for example, and the Duomo di Firenze. ![]() Art by Onkar ShirsekarĪrt comes at a price. Juventus’ recent extravagance in the transfer market may give them a dark hue, but Serie A won’t mind the attention it is now getting.
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