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Let's All Remember How Noel Gallagher Was Alessandro Del Piero's World Cup Lucky Charm

Let's All Remember How Noel Gallagher Was Alessandro Del Piero's World Cup Lucky Charm

A World Cup tale for the ages

Joe Baiamonte

Joe Baiamonte

For a footballer to be truly great, how talented they are with a ball at their feet is merely secondary to whether or not they'd be good company to have a pint or six with and, in the case of Alessandro Del Piero, you can safely assume the Italian can sink a Peroni with the ease of graciously arching a 20 yard curler past the grasp of another helpless opposition goalkeeper.

A story which adds credence to this theory is Del Piero's friendship with Oasis guitarist/songwriter/miserly old get (I mean that as a compliment), Noel Gallagher. The pair's relationship stretches back more than a decade and is also responsible for Italy's 2006 World Cup victory.

With the final kick of the Azzurri's thrilling semi-final against Germany, in Dortmund, Del Piero curled the ball past Jens Lehmann to confirm Marcello Lippi's team's place in the final. The Juventus man then sped towards the Italy fans to celebrate, with one fan in particular catching his attention.

"I was sat beside his wife. His wife reckons he was coming over to blow kisses at her, but what's actually happened is he's seen me and his wife happened to be there," Gallagher joked to Football Focus. "He then gets it in his head that I'm his lucky mascot, so he said: 'You'll have to come to the final'. He made me wear the same clothes."

Del Piero
Del Piero

"I said MAYBEEEEEE..." (Image credit: PA)

Luckily for the Italians, Gallagher did as he was told and dug out the same gear for the final in Berlin against France on 9th July, 2006. Gallagher's outfit was lucky enough to inspire Marco Materazzi to bullet home Italy's equaliser and encourage Zinedine Zidane to put his head through the Inter centre halve's chest and thus get himself sent off. The Oasis man's threads then distracted David Trezeguet enough to cause him to slam his shoot-out spot kick against the crossbar and hand the trophy to the Italians for the fourth time. I'm pretty sure that's how events transpired, anyway.

Alessandro Del Piero - goalscorer supreme and bezzy mates with Noel Gallagher. How they haven't formed a supergroup yet is beyond me. If the Oasis reunion isn't happening, what's keeping Ale and Noel from hitting the studio?


Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Alessandro Del Piero, Football, World Cup, Italy