As of today, Juventus' 2008/09 defence can be considered complete. After signing Mellberg, and De Ceglie's return, now it's Dario Knezevic's turn joining the side. Born in 1982, in Rijeka, Croatia, he played for Livorno last season and is here on loan, with an option for Juve to buy out half of his ownership. He'll be joining Ranieri and the others from mid-July, after the holidays needed to recuperate after Euro 2008 and most of all to recover from the injury he picked up against Poland, which forced him to finish his involvement in the tournament early.
"I'm joining the biggest team of them all; I'll have to measure up to players of Del Piero and Trezeguet's stature. For sure I'll learn something every day and in each training session". These were Dario's first words, spoken in visibly excited tones, as is normal for any newbie joining the "university of football".
After stints at Rijeka and Livorno, the lad knows this is his big chance to show what he's worth and confirm the good impression he gave in the last two years in Italy and when playing for his national team, after the doubly unlucky experience at Euro 2008 (the injury for him and Croatia being knocked out in such a dramatic fashion by Turkey).
Indeed the injury suffered in the last match of the first round will prevent him from starting off at full speed. Director of Sport Alessio Secco and Dr. Agricola, both in Vinovo today, announced that Knezevic will need to rest for 30/35 days due to the knock he received to his left knee, which in any case is already healing. After 15 days of physiotherapy with no training, he will be able to start a personal regime and then join the others before the end of July to start training normally under Manager Ranieri's supervision.
The injury didn't prevent other teams trying to sign him up until the last moment. Especially Torino, with whom a true "market transfer derby" was fought. Alessio Secco spoke in clear terms about the situation: "We started talks with Livorno's president Spinelli about ten days ago and we reached a verbal agreement, taking our time to check Dario's conditions. In the meantime, other Clubs tried to sneak in with their offers, but the player only signed our contract, which is the only one signed by both Juventus and Livorno too. That's why we're perfectly sure it's all legit and we'll be depositing his contract already tomorrow".
End of discussion, as the player himself confirmed: "I respect Torino, but since I was a boy I'd always dreamed of playing for a big club and this is the biggest of them all. In the last few days I never had any doubt about which club to choose ".
Just the time to fully recover from his injury and then Knezevic's dream will entirely become reality. "I'm aware I'm joining a team where a lot of huge stars play and some of these are great defenders. But competition doesn't scare me. I'm here to learn and I'll be able to do so in each and every training session. Over the years I've played in every role in defence, but I'm more at ease as a central defender".
Sauce: Juventus.com
