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| Pele and Sivori in 1961 |
If you asked people (old enough to remember of course)
to describe Italian football in the 1960s, you will most likely get the same responses; ‘Catenaccio’,‘Helenio Herrera’ and ‘Nereo Rocco’. The
1960s belonged to the Milanese giants, on the domestic and European front;
between them they won five Scudettos (including numerous runners up finishes),
four European Cups and one Cup Winners Cup. It was the decade of La Grande Inter and Gianni Rivera.
Compare this to the fortunes of Juventus in the decade and it’s quite a stark contrast. Juve won back-to-back titles in 1959/60 and
60/61, a further title in 1966/67 and a sole Coppa Italia title in 1964/65. By
La Vecchia Signora’s high standards it wasn’t the most successful of decades,
but the entire landscape of Calcio could have been very different if a
particular mission by the club had been successful.
The mission in question was a potential transfer that could
have changed the face of Italian football in the '60s, over the years Juve have had numerous 'nearly done' transfers (Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Xabi Alonso spring to mind), yet this 'nearly completed' transfer is by far the biggest of them all, and it is a relatively
unknown story.
