WHERE: Juventus Stadium, Turin, Italy
WHEN: September 8, 2011
WHO: John Elkann | CEO Exor (Parent company of Juventus)
It was a beautiful afternoon in Turin, around four o’clock, when we sat down for the first of a few on-camera chats with the family’s friendly and thoughtful leader. Behind him we got constant glimpses of inaugural ceremony preparation as the stadium’s doors were to imminently open to the public for the first time. Simply, we set out to get to know John, the person, in order to breathe life into the on-screen character who would rise up in the Juventus Story’s third act. Revisiting this discussion now over a decade later really takes us back while simultaneously offering you a chance to get to know him in such a casual setting.
LA VILLA
Question numero uno.
Starting right at the beginning, as a kid growing up…
ELKANN
Football started in Brazil for my brother and myself because we lived there as kids. Brazil is a country where football is a big, big deal, which you actually end up playing. So more than participating as a supporter, it really starts with you playing football in the streets.
LA VILLA
Where in Brazil?
ELKANN
In Rio de Janeiro.
LA VILLA
You went to school there? How old were you?
ELKANN
We went to school there. I was six. My brother [Lapo] was four and a half. Before that we lived in the UK, but we were small, so there football was very unknown [to us] and going to Brazil it became something with which we started living.
It was about playing when you were in school, ion the beach or playing in the streets. It was a big, big. It’s a big thing, where everybody decides to play. You’re in the park and you put two shirts and then you just have a ball. A ball is very simple to have. It doesn’t cost a lot of money and that is how fundamentally we started [to experience] football. Living in Brazil, we never really were close to any specific teams. We spent most of our youth enjoying football as soccer players. And what was interesting was to emulate and the idea of big players.
So the big players were fundamentally Brazilian players. You related to them not because you were from Botafogo, from Fluminense native Flamengo, but you just had these big players.
LA VILLA
Lapo [your brother] said Falcao was one of his favorite. Socrates.
ELKANN
But they were more related to Brazilian players in the national team of Brazil, than related to the Italian championship.
My recollection was from ‘80s when Italy won in 1982. We were in Greece was when I was six years old. Those were the first real matches and [where I had] an understanding of a relationships between Italy - of us being Italian - and of Italy and Juventus. Because that [Italian] team was really the backbone of all of Juventus. So that was the first understanding of Juventus for us. The relationship Italy-Juventus and how Juventus was a big thing.
A big influence was a Japanese animated cartoon series from 1983
with football players called “Holly and Benji”
But our reality was a Brazilian reality. And so we weren’t really guided by those [Italian] players. And the second big [football] influence was a Japanese cartoon where you had these, Japanese football players called “Holly and Benji” (from the 1983 Japanese animated series, ‘Captain Tsubasa’ aka in Brazil, ‘Super Campeões’ and in Italy, ‘Holly e Benji, due fuoriclasse’), which basically were kids who were playing great football, doing incredible things.
LA VILLA
And you’re watching that in Brazil or?
ELKANN
We were watching that in Brazil.
LA VILLA
And this is the period from when you’re six years old to--
ELKANN
Twelve-When you still think you can be a champion of something.
LA VILLA
Your position was in the midfield? Or striker? Goalie?
ELKANN
It was midfield. No goalie, no defense and so that was football for us. Emulating Brazilian champions and emulating these cartoons. These cartoons are quite impressive.
LA VILLA
We’ve got to find [that show], we’re going to watch it.
ELKANN
Juventus was remote and the first real link was through the Italian national team.
LA VILLA
But growing up in the family, you start to hear things, people probably mention it to you slowly… you knew that your grandfather was connected, owned the team and so on.
ELKANN
Yeah, but it wasn’t really part of our daily life. So it was something which existed, but we didn’t really relate to.
When we came back to Europe [from living in Brazil], to Paris then it started to be more present. Our first relationships with Juventus was when we were ten, eleven, twelve years old and we’d go to our grandparents for holidays in Villa Perosa (the Agnelli family’s home town just north of Turin).
Our first relationships with Juventus was when we were ten, eleven, twelve years old and
we’d go to our grandparents for holidays in Villa Perosa, north of Turin.
What you saw in Villa Perosa, was the team would visiting the house, and that was the moment when we would meet them. That’s when it first began with Juventus, around ten to twelve years old. What was interesting as a kid, really, was to ask for autographs and be able to speak with the players.
LA VILLA
And so you’re kickin’ around the house. You see the players arrive, get autographs, take pictures and then go down the hill to see the game.
ELKANN
Then we would go down and see the game and that was very I mean, that was quite unbelievable because you actually had the opportunity of of seeing them in action up close, speaking to them, getting autographs from them.
That was really the buzz and the excitement. Yeah and then you’d have a lot of people thinking that you knew what the new team was going to be like, which we clearly didn’t know and who were going to be the next new player signings. Which was also topic of conversation with my great uncle Umberto or my grandfather, as the fans and journalists tried to give them some tips, ideas, and advice.
I remember well in, in Italy, when you had the ‘90 World Cup, I was 14 years old.
LA VILLA
We were here [in Italy] for the whole summer. That’s when they built Delle Alpi stadium too (where Juventus played their home matches until it was demolished in 2009 and also where the new stadium was built in 2011).
ELKANN
That’s when they built Delle Alpi. I was fourteen years old and Toto Schillaci was the big revelation of that year. He was in Juventus, and we went to Turkey that year and everybody would call every Italian Toto Schillaci. All the Italians were Toto Schillaci.
LA VILLA
We had two tickets for Italy vs USA in Rome but my cousin took them from us. We later ended up with the crappiest tickets in Bari, but, we got to see the consolation match with England and Toto Schillaci. We sat right behind the net and he scored his 6th goal. We saw the penalty shot of Toto Schillaci when he became the capocanoniere--
ELKANN
of the the World Cup.
LA VILLA
That stadium, designed by Renzo Piano, was also just built.
ELKANN
Yes, the San Nicola.
LA VILLA
Impressive. Yeah. And we saw a couple other matches before the consolation with Roger Milla.
ELKANN
Yes the Cameroon [Indomitable] Lion!
LA VILLA
Getting back to when you were just becoming aware of Juventus when you’re around Gianni and Umberto. How was the energy like with them? Did they get tense and serious, or were they a more passionate? What was it like? Could you speak to them about Juventus or didn’t [they not] want to be bothered during or before a match? Was there anything you can remember?
…with both Umberto and my grandfather I saw games with them at the stadium and on TV.
They would be very, very concentrated on the game if it wasn’t going well.
ELKANN
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean during the games, they wouldn’t speak. So with both Umberto and my grandfather I saw games with them at the stadium and on TV. They would be very, very concentrated on the game if it wasn’t going well-- but they’d express their happiness and be happy to share that happiness about a great goal.
But before the game it was a very focused moment. I would say there wasn’t that much nervousness. The games were generally on Sunday afternoon, so you’d have, lunch and then after that you’d go to the football match. I did that often, but that was much later when I was living here. I was 18 and I was studying.
Having said that, with Umberto and my grandfather you’d have lunch and you’d speak about anything. You never sensed some nervousness. Now, if the match was an important match, then you’d have more people for lunch, coming for the match and so that created some excitement--
LA VILLA
Lunch at?
ELKANN
Umberto’s house or my grandfather’s here in Turin. And if you had like big matches, European matches which were at night then with those you’d sense even more energy in the air. The big matches like a Champions League final which we also attended — we went to Rome and then Amsterdam to win.
LA VILLA
The 1996 win. You were at the 1996 [UCL final we won]--
ELKANN
Yeah.
LA VILLA
Because there’s one tiny little shot that I saw of your grandfather walking through the stadium corridors right after we won and as people are sort of attacking, a fan attacks and kisses him.
ELKANN
Yeah, I was there. But we weren’t in the stadium during the penalties. We watched them on TV in a corridor.
So we didn’t we weren’t in the stadium, we walked away and there was a TV and we watched them there when they won.
LA VILLA
In the hallway. And that’s when your grandfather says, “Mi son piaciuti i rigori.” in that little interview (”I liked the penalties.”) right before the fan jumps in and kisses him. We see there’s you and Platini walking right behind your grandfather.
LA VILLA
There are some particular matches we want to talk about - [like] that Champions League final in particular - your grandfather was very happy.
ELKANN
Yeah he was very happy. But I went to the others. I was in Munich with my grandfather. I went to Manchester with my uncle, Umberto. But yeah, after we saw the penalties (in Amsterdam) he was very happy.
Then we all wanted to go home, have a good dinner and cherish those moments.
LA VILLA
He must have slept well that night.