It will be a reunion of sorts for the cynosure of all eyes Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet as the Capital gears up to host the star-studded Indian Super League(ISL) with Delhi Dynamos taking on FC Pune City on Tuesday.
Del Piero, the Juventus legend and a World Cup winner with Italy, will be leading the Dynamos against a team that will be spearheaded by Frenchman Trezeguet, who had won world football's silverwire in 1998.
Both were part of the Juventus team when the Serie A giants were relegated to second division following the 2006 match-fixing scandal that rocked Italian football. They were also the ones singing the redemption song when the club, also called the Old Lady of Turin, returned to top-flight football and dominated the league.
The legendary Italian striker, who is Dynamos' marquee player, will have the support of talented footballers from countries like Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Belgium and the Czech Republic besides top Indian talent. The team is coached by Belgian coach Harm van Veldhoven.
Having got a feel of the city, the 39-year-old Del Piero is eagerly awaiting the start of his side's campaign. "I have tried some Delhi food and I have seen some beautiful sights in the city. Now I can't wait to meet the people of Delhi. I hope to see all Dilliwaalas at the JLN stadium cheering for the Delhi Dynamos, come on Delhi!" Del Piero said.
The home team is high on star value and besides Del Piero, who is also the league's most expensive player, it has national team stars such as Francis Fernandes, Steven Dias along with Danish Strikers Mads Junker and Morten Skoubo.
As far the Pune franchise is concerned, the team has striker Trezeguet as its marquee player. Kostas Katsouranis, the captain of Greece in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, is the other big signing for the team.
Bruno Cirillo, Emanuele Belardi, Daniele Magliocchetti, Davide Colomba, Andres Gonzelez, Saidou Panandetiguiri, Park Kwang-il, Omar Andres Rodriguez, Dudu Omagbemi and Ivan Boladoare are the other overseas players.
Lenny Rodrigues, Dharmaraj Ravanan, Ashutosh Mehta, Joaquim Abranches and Mehrajuddin Wadoo among other are some of the well-known Indian recruits.
Former Serie A player Franco Colomba is the head coach of the team and will be assisted by Giovanni Mei, also from Italy and Iuri Bartoli. Piero Spinosa is the goalkeeping coach and Stefano Desideri is the team manager - both from Italy.
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