I WRITE BEFORE IN ITALIAN:
CIAO A TUTTI GLI ITALIANI "STRANIERI" MA SIETE SEMPRE ITALIANI, COLGO L'OCCASSIONE X DIRE QUELLO KE PENSO.
DEL PIERO ERA IL GIOCATORE + PROMETTENTE DEL CALCIO NOSTRANO MA NON SI SA COME MAI POSSA ESSERE DIVENTATO COSì. LA COSA + SCANDALOSA è CHE RICEVA DALLA JUVENTUS 12 MLD NETTI A STAGIONE (TOGLIENDO GLI SPONSOR). MA NON PENSATE CHE QUESTO SIA INGIUSTO!!!
IN ITALIA AL RIENTRO ALL'AEROPORTO VOLEVANO TIRARE I POMODORI SOLO A DEL PIERO.
DITE LA VOSTRA E SEMPRE FORZA AZZURRI VINCEREMO AI MONDIALI DEL 2002!!!!!!

Now i speak English:
In Italy after Euro 2000 all have understood that Del Piero isn't more like 4 years ago and that he won't be like before.
By me give 12 MLD to Del piero at year is very much for a player that isn't like before.
In Italy today when AZZURRI have come back from HOLLAND, many people wanted to lunch potatoes only to DEL PIERO!
However FORZA AZZURRI
See you at WORLD CUP 2002!

For me it's like that:

In 1994, 2 young, emerging players come out at Juventus and at Roma: Del Piero, 20, and Totti, 18.

While Totti showed incredible skills from day 1, it were del Piero's goals that turned the heads. I must admit: I never saw anybody score as many brilliant goals as Del Piero did in 94 or 95.
He never however showed the dibbling or passing skills of Roberto Baggio, whose successor he was always named.
At 21, he had a fat advertisment contract already, and the hype started totally in. He was called better than Baggio, people around the globe who only knew him from his goals were told he was the next Maradona.
Then came that setback in 96-97, when he was often benched by Lippi, who was critisized a lot for this.
Funny thing that he had his finest year in 97-98, and in that very season, he was the world's best player along with Ronaldo and Zidane.
Then came that injury before the CL final against Real, an injury which ended the season but because of the WC he kept on playing.

Now the next act: Maldini had 2 players at hand, but only 1 spot. Roberto Baggio, 31, in brilliant form and with a mental coolness close to divine. And Alex Del Piero, 23, injured, coming off a great season, and surely not feeling very comfty with all the hype going on.
Well, we all know what happened in France, and even if it would have been hard for Alex, MALDINI SHOULD NOT HAVE HIM TAKEN THERE IN THE 1ST PLACE.

After this summer, he did not really recover that well, but things seemes to change in October when he netted 2 vs. Switzerland and scored his 1st league game, just before that injury that put him out for the rest of the season.
Well, he neither came back last year, scoring 1 lousy goal for Juve, while players like Signori and Baggio again showed all their worth but didn't receive a call by Zoff.

Meanwhile however, Totti demonstrated again and again that he was Italy's best offensive player alongside with Vieri, and so Zoff made him his starter for Euro 2000.
The only mistake Zoff made during this tourney was not to start Totti from day 1 between 2 strikers, because then not only Totti would have had "his" role, but also all the world would have seen that del Piero simply aint't the player anymore they know form highlight reels.

I don't really think that Zoff will call him again before he does get back to form, and if he continues this way, well no more Italy for him.
He seems to have the same problem that Lentini had when going to Milan, simply not being able to handle the pressure all that money put on him.
With Pirlo coming strong and Cassano having a pre-contract for Juve, things won't get easier.

I wish him good luck, and if one day he comes back I'll be happy for him, because even though he killed my heart yesterday, I don't hate him (this feeling is reserved for Inzaghi). He is a nice guy, but he ain't no great player nomore.

AMEN

I used to like del piero,but he cant score .But is he really a striker ?Its hard for me to beleive that he just scored 3 goals on open play this season(1-Italian cup,1-Serie A,1-Italy vs Sweden) .If I were Agnelli i would sell him ,but who will buy him?He better have a good season this year or he will be gone quickly .And Trezeguet will be fighting for his place and maybe even Massimiliano Vieri can impress us .I hope he gets a big potato right in the face as soon as he returns to italy ,maybe that can wake him up .I may sound mean ,but how the hell did he miss those 3 chances ,he just needed to convert on one of them .

Penso che Italia non va vincere nel mundial 2002 ma penso che vanno giocare un rol molto importante. Anch'io penso che Italia non deve chiamare mai a del piero, lui non ha giocato bene da 2 anni. Soltanto aspettanno a Christian vieri...

I know you guys will laugh at me but I still think Italy should have taken Paolo Di Canio to Euro2000 - he's a warrior, he has bags of skill and he hates to lose. I've seen him play for West Ham and not only does he score the most amazing goals, he pumps up his team mates and the crowd - not to mention he's so intense, I've seen him scream at himself for just giving a bad pass to a team mate. With Di Canio upfront I think you would have won the final....but then again you would have won if some other Italian striker was fit...what's his name again....oh yeah...Vieri http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/wink.gif

Neutral: actually I share you view absulutely. Di Canio was a tremendous talent back in Italy, and as it seems he only became the great player his skills promised in England. At the gazzetta-forum actually, almost everybody agreed that he should have gotten a call.
But Zoff (almost) only calls players from the serie A, this sucks. As I can remember, the only exception was Panucci at Real.

Zoff knew that Panucci was going to Inter thats why he was in the team ,btw why didnt zoff chose panucci?

I think that del Pierro is just another overrated player amongst a lot in Europe.
We really shouldn't blame him about Italy's loss in the final but we should blame the press that forced Zoff to use him as a starter. Del Pierro is just an average player and in my opinion he shouldn't be in the Italy squad.