Alessandro Del Piero’s two-year Sydney FC stint helped raise A-League’s profile and the former Juventus great is confident of making a similar impact as the face of the Indian Super League (ISL), which kicks off next month.
After 19 trophy-laden years at Juventus and the Australia sojourn, Del Piero landed in New Delhi on Thursday, making an unlikely stop on an illustrious career as a ‘marquee’ player of ISL’s Delhi franchise as well as the league’s brand ambassador.
“A-League experience was very good,” said the Italian who turns 40 in November. “I spent great two years in Sydney... I’m very privileged because everything incredibly moved forward in the league - the crowd, the TV interest, the money situation.”
All of that he now wants to replicate in India, a cricket-mad country of 1.2 billion that currently ranks an embarrassing 158th in FIFA order.
“I hope so, this is the target, but the task is different you know,” Del Piero said. “The league in Australia was already in, this is a new step. We want to take great first steps. This is a completely new challenge and I hope this league can be good for the national team.”
