Rank 2, WorldCupStory Club Index 57,018
Juventus World Cup XI Dream Team
| Juventus | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | Country | WCups | Games | Mins | Goals | Capt | |
| GK | Dino Zoff | Italy | 3 | 17 | 1530 | 0 | 14 |
| RB | Claudio Gentile | Italy | 2 | 13 | 1170 | 0 | 0 |
| CB | Fabio Cannavaro | Italy | 2 | 10 | 960 | 0 | 10 |
| CB | Gaetano Scirea | Italy | 3 | 18 | 1620 | 0 | 4 |
| LB | Antonio Cabrini | Italy | 3 | 18 | 1609 | 1 | 0 |
| MF | Marco Tardelli | Italy | 2 | 13 | 1155 | 2 | 0 |
| MF | Patrick Vieira | France | 1 | 7 | 587 | 2 | 1 |
| MF | Zinedine Zidane | France | 1 | 5 | 461 | 2 | 0 |
| MF | Michel Platini | France | 1 | 6 | 565 | 2 | 6 |
| ST | Roberto Baggio | Italy | 1 | 7 | 602 | 5 | 0 |
| ST | Paolo Rossi | Italy | 1 | 7 | 575 | 6 | 0 |
| 20 | 121 | 10834 | 20 | 35 |
It is no surprise to see 8 Italians in the Juventus World Cup dream team, but perhaps we would not expect all of the other three to be French. One of the hardest choices was in goal, where Dino Zoff held off the challenge of Gianluigi Buffon. Both have played multiple World Cups, and have won winners medals, so the main differentiator came down to Zoff’s startling 14 games as Italy captain.
Lilian Thuram narrowly fails to break into a back four which is all Italian, as the man to man marking skills of Claudio Gentile are preferred. Antonio Cabrini fills the left back position, and we have leaders and World Cup winners in Fabio Cannavaro and Gaetano Scirea at centre back. The defence has all played a lot of World Cup games over a total of 13 World Cups. They will prove hard to break down.
The midfield is a classic blend of hard men and footballing genius. Marco Tardelli and Patrick Vieira fill the more defensive roles with the added benefit of a couple of goals apiece. This made the difference in comparison to other hard men contenders, who included Luis Monti, Romeo Benetti, Didier Deschamps and Edgar Davids, any one of whom might expect to make the starting eleven of another club dream team looking for midfielders to dish out punishment.
The counterpoint to Tardelli and Vieira could hardly be more delicious as Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini vie to wear the number 10 shirt and to be in control of set pieces, having seen off Alessandro Del Piero and Fabio Capello from the starting lineup.
Up front it was a straight choice for the poaching role between Paolo Rossi and Salvatore Schillaci. It was felt that they could not fit into the same team and Rossi’s 1982 World Cup winning performances made the difference. Roberto Baggio will play in the hole and his 5 goals proved too strong a case to consider the elegant Roberto Bettega, Franco Causio and John Charles.
It is the strongest of all dream teams for captaincy and with the widest choice of hard men, but compared to the other European powerhouse clubs, is perhaps a bit light on goals.
