One hundred twenty-five candles. A long football novel intertwined with the history of the country. The foundation of Juventus dates back to autumn 1897, the exact date is not known but the convention indicates November 1st.
It is some students of the Massimo D’Azeglio high school in Turin who set up a company dedicated to football, a new sport of English import which, after lessons, they practice as an alternative to the bar: there are thirteen of them, another five will follow them, and no one exceeds the seventeen years old, they vote for the name, decide the location and draft the first statute around their meeting place, a bench in Corso Re Umberto.
Among the proposed denominations Società Via Fort, Società Sportiva Massimo D’Azeglio, Iris Club, Robur and Augusta Taurinorum, but in the end Sport Club Juventus is chosen: they don’t like it so much, to tell the truth, but it is representative, they are Youth and they study the Latin, the translation is juventus but the J is both a whim and the hope of an international future.
Eugenio Canfari is appointed first president and the back room of his father’s bicycle workshop, also in Corso Re Umberto, becomes the first location: after a few weeks, however, for six lire a month, an apartment is rented in via Montevecchio. In the group of founders there is also Eugenio’s brother, Enrico, who a year later will inherit the position: he is one of the best players, he stands out on the pitch, he will also play with Milan and become a referee before dying as a soldier. 38 years old, in Monte San Michele in the third battle of the Isonzo.
The very first shirt worn is white, but the pink chosen immediately after the first official match, played on March 11, 1900, is handed down to history for … economic reasons: the “thin and rosy percale” with which they are made costs 0.70 by the meter: «FC Torinese invited us to play against him – the story of Enrico Canfari -, and it didn’t seem true to us that we could try our hand at real players even if they were not very reassuring in build and stature. They were beaten as a team, but individually, for the great exercise in the dribble, we did not disfigure at all. Put in this way, formed the eleven, we began to accept challenges and launch them, until to establish ourselves in the presence of the Turin public we announced a tournament. A uniform was needed for the occasion, but how? Cotton, flannel, knit? In the end, the choice: a thin and rosy percale that we then wore, faded beyond belief, until the year 1902, but the uniform was not all there: a white Savoyard pique cap, black sash at the waist, black shorts, tie of the same color, completed the sketch ”.