5 famous players who donned the No.7 jersey at Juventus before Cristiano Ronaldo

Parma Calcio v Juventus - Serie A
Parma Calcio v Juventus - Serie A

#3 Angelo Di Livio

Champs League SF Angelo Di Livio
Angelo Di Livio in the Champions League semi-finals

The first player to wear the No.7 jersey for Juventus irrespective of the position he played in, Angelo Di Livio was born on 26th of July 1966 in the Italian capital city of Rome and started his journey through the youth system of Rome before joining Reggiana during the 1985-86 season after failing to make into the first team in his only season with AS Roma.

The midfielder once again was on the move as he joined Nocerina, joining the side during the 1986-87 season, and then Perugia, during the 1987-88 season, only to move on to Padova during the 1989/90 season after 2 seasons with Perugia. In Padova Italian midfielder finally found some stability as he made over 100 appearances in almost 4 years for the club before joining the Turin giants in the 1993/94 season.

It was in Turin that midfielder rose to prominence, featuring in a well-drilled team made up of the likes of Roberto Baggio, Vialli, Antonio Conte and later the likes Zinedine Zidane and Lilian Thuram. The versatility of the Italian was rightly exploited by the future Italian World Cup-winning manager Marcello Lippi as the Juventus no7 was deployed as a defensive midfielder, fullback, left midfielder and as a right midfielder, his main position.

A tireless winger the Italian was one of the most technically gifted and disciplined players to have played the game. Nicknamed the Il Solidatino or the little soldier by his more revered teammate Roberto Baggio, due to the way in which he followed the manager's orders. The Italian was a manager's player who thrived under disciplinarians like Marcelo Lippi and Giovani Trappatoni who was known for a variety of attributes like his pace, mentality, man-marking, crossing, strength, work-rate, consistency and his versatility.

The now 52-year old enjoyed 6 wonderful seasons with the Old Lady of Turin appearing in the No.7 jersey during the 1993/94 season before making the jersey his own from the 1996/97 season till his move after the 1999/2000 season, making 187 appearances and winning 3 Seria A, 2 Suppercoppa Italiana, 1 Coppa Italia, 1 Intercontinental Cup, 1 UEFA Super Cup and 1 UEFA Champions League before finally leaving for Fiorentina, enjoying another 6 years with the La Viola that saw him going down to Seria C in 2002, after Fiorentina was declared bankrupt, and then returning back to Seria A with the La Viola in the 2004/2005.

The versatile midfielder finally retired in 2005, having made 611 appearances and scoring 28 goals in a career spanning almost 21 years.

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