Hailing from Torino in Italy’s industrial north, Juventus is one of the most famous and illustrious football clubs in the world. They are also the most successful club in Italian football.

Juventus was founded by a group of students in 1897. They originally wore pink shirts, but swapped to their now iconic black and white striped shirts in 1903 after dispatching an English player in the squad to purchase some shirts from Notts County.

The Old Lady
In 1923, Fiat magnate Edoardo Agnelli bought the club, and his family still controls Juventus today. Their first golden age came in the thirties, when between 1930 and 1935 Juventus won five consecutive Italian championships.

It was then that they first acquired their nickname, The Old Lady - an ironic twist on the fact that while Juventus means ‘youth’ in Latin, many of the players the Scudetto-winning teams of the 1930s were of advancing years.

The late 1950s
The next golden age for the club came in the late 1950s, when they won two championships in a row and their first league and cup double in 1959/60. Crucial to their success during this period was the triumvirate of Welshman John Charles, Argentine Omar Sivori and Italian Giampiero Boniperti.

The 1960s saw Juventus winning the championship on four further occasions. And the following decade they went one better, notching up five more Scudettos.

Disaster at Heysel
The early 1980s brought further success, as the Old Lady won four Serie A titles between 1980 and 1986 as well as a first European Cup in 1985. That victory, over Liverpool, was overshadowed the stadium disaster at Heysel, when 39 fans were killed before the match during riots.

The most important player in this period and scorer of the goal in that final was Frenchman Michel Platini, who was voted European Footballer of the Year three years in a row.

Baggio and Zidane
The last golden era was in the mid-1990s when, under the guidance of the wily Marcello Lippi, Juventus regained domestic supremacy from the Milanese duo. Inter and AC Milan.

With players like Gianluca Vialli, Alessandro del Piero, Roberto Baggio and Zinedine Zidane, a resurgent Juve won the title in 1994/95,1996/97 and 1997/98, and added a second Champions League/European Cup title in 1995/96, beating Ajax on penalties.

Calciopoli
Juventus reached the final of the Champions League again in 1997 and 1998 but lost on both occasions to Dortmund and Real Madrid.

After two more Italian titles in the new millennium, the club suffered the lowest ebb in its fortunes in 2006, when a match-fixing scandal saw Juventus demoted to Serie B for the first time in their history. However, the Old Lady bounced straight up to finish third in Serie A in the 2007/08 season.

Popular in Southern Italy
Traditionally, Juve’s main rivalries have been with neighbours Torino and also with Inter Milan. The fixture between Inter and Juventus is commonly referred to as Derby d’Italia. Curiously, Juventus have more supporters from outside Torino than in the city itself, and are especially popular in Southern Italy.

Among the many great players to have won the black and white shirt of Juventus are Giampiero Boniperti, Omar Sivori, John Charles, Gaetano Scirea, Roberto Bettega, Paulo Rossi, Michel Platini, Michael Laudrup, Roberto Baggio, Gianluca Vialli and Alessandro del Piero.

TITLES:
Serie A: (27) 1905; 1925–26; 1930–31; 1931–32; 1932–33; 1933–34; 1934–35; 1949–50; 1951–52; 1957–58; 1959–60; 1960–61; 1966–67; 1971–72; 1972–73; 1974–75; 1976–77; 1977–78; 1980–81; 1981–82; 1983–84; 1985–86; 1994–95; 1996–97; 1997–98; 2001–02; 2002–03

Coppa Italia (9) : 1937–38; 1941–42; 1958–59; 1959–60; 1964–65; 1978–79; 1982–83; 1989–90; 1994–95

UEFA Champions League/European Champions Cup (2): 1984–85; 1995–96

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1983–84

UEFA Cup (3): 1976–77; 1989–90; 1992–93

Intercontinental Cup (2): 1985; 1996