School’s Out

With victory against Lazio in the last match day and the second place in the championship came the “school’s out” for Juventus. For many players the well deserved holidays have begun but for many others there is still much more to sweat about.

Many bianconeri will in fact be busy in June with their respective national teams. Buffon, Chiellini, Legrottaglie, Camoranesi and Iaquinta (a part from new signing Cannavaro) will take part with Italy in the Confederations Cup, the competition which brings together all the continental champions as well as the World Champions and the hosting country and which takes place in the country in which the next world championships will be played, in this case South Africa.

Italy will take part as world champions whereas the accredited teams are: Brazil who won the Coppa America in 2007, Spain the European Champion in 2008, the USA holders of the Conacaf title held in 2007, Iraq Asian Champions, Egypt as African Champions and New Zealand Ofc Confederation Champions.

Mellberg, Poulsen, Tiago, and Manninger will be busy with world cup qualifiesr: on the 6th of June the fixtures foresee Sweden-Denmark, Albania-Portugal and Serbia-Austria while on the 10th of June Sweden-Malta will be played.

De Ceglie, Giovinco and Marchisio will be busy with the Under 21 European championships in Sweden and they also will have to wait for their holidays.

All the others, including new signing Diego, who was not called-up by Dunga for the Confederations Cup, will meet at the beginning of July in Pinzolo, the location of the usual Summer camp. The new season will begin at Val Rendana and proceed in Spain with the Peace Cup, one of the most important tournaments in the world, “the Summer Champions League” as it has been re-named.

Juventus will face quality opponents – from all around the world – of the likes of Real Madrid, Seville, Deportivo La Coruna, Malaga, Porto, Olympique Lyom, Aston Villa, Celtic Glasgow, Fenerbahçe, LDU Quito (Colombia), Al Ittihad (Saudi Arabia) and Seongnam (South Korea). The bianconeri are in Group A together with Seville and the Korean side of Seongnam.

The tournament will take place between the 24th of July and the 2nd of August for the first time in Europe after three editions in Korea. This will be followed by the classical Summer tournaments from the Trofeo Berlusconi to the Trofeo Birra Moretti leading up to the 23rd of August and the beginning of the new championship.

Juventus.com