On Wednesday, Juventus icon Alessandro Del Piero turns 48. The Italian legend is widely considered as the greatest player to ever don the famous black and white jersey.

Until this day, the retired striker still holds the record for the number of appearances at the club with 705, and is also the Bianconeri’s all-time top scorer with 290 goals.

But his greatest trait is arguably his resolute loyalty for the club. Following Juve’s demotion to Serie B in 2006, the World Cup winner had a variety of offers from top European clubs, including Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

Nonetheless, he was hellbent on staying put and help Juventus return to its rightful place.

“Why?” one might ask. Because “a true gentleman gentleman never his leaves his lady”, was his simple yet iconic answer.

At the end of day, his loyalty paid dividends, as final act at the Allianz Stadium was lifting the Scudetto title, an achievement which proved to be the cornerstone which started the longest winning dynasty in Italian football history.

By the time he left Turin in 2012, Alex was already one of the club’s lowest earners, and was happy to stick around for years to come. But sadly, the management had other plans, and decided to wield the axe on an unparalleled stint that lasted for 19 years.

For us Juventus fans who grew up watching Del Piero, it’s hard to find words that truly describe what he means to us.

So on his special, let’s recall 10 reasons why we absolutely adore the iconic striker in a video uploaded by the club’s official YouTube channel