26 May 2009 - Diego in white&black

Turin, 26th of May, 2009 – Juventus Football Club announces that the agreement with Werder Bremen for the acquisition of the registration rights of the player Da Cunha Diego has been finalized. The contract, effective as of 1 July 2009, envisages the payment by Juventus of € 24.5 million in three instalments: € 14 million on 1 July 2009, € 5.5 million on 1 July 2010, € 5 million on 1 July 2011. Deferred payments will be covered by a bank guarantee. The purchase value may increase by a further maximum of € 2.5 million on achieving given sports performances in the course of the duration of the contract. Juventus and the player have signed a 5-year contract of employment starting from 1 July 2009 and will expire on June 30th, 2009.

«Thanks to his technical characteristics – Juventus’ CEO Jean-Claude Blanc stated – Diego becomes a fundamental player to strengthen the team. We have always said that our goal is to put young men and champions together and Diego summarizes both these two identities: even though he’s only 24, in fact, he is a great experience player, with more than 7 years as a professional at high levels. I’m sure his contribution will be important to make Juventus keep on growing and to make a further step forward, considering our next goals».

«Registering this contract – Sport Director Alessio Secco added – we have definitively entered an agreement we’ve been working on for many months. Diego is a unique player and to bring him to Juventus we had to compete with some of most important European Clubs. His acquisition increases the team potentiality and will allow testing different forms of play. His performances during the last sport seasons, and his personality that made him special in Germany and in Europe, are the confirmation to his qualities. He will be a further “weapon” to face with faith also the next Champions League, mathematically achieved last Sunday ».

The Brazilian midfielder, yesterday in Turin for medical check-up and for signing the agreement, went back to Germany where on Saturday May, 30th, will play the Germany Cup final vs. Bayer Leverkusen. Before going back to Brema he declared: «I’m enthusiastic of Juventus and proud of becoming part of such a prestigious club, a club I’ve been dreaming of since I was a little boy. After the experience in Portugal and in the Bundesliga I will have the chance to face a very high level soccer, in a difficult and very competitive championship. It’s the right time of my career to take such an important decision and I’m sure with Juventus I will be able to achieve great successes. But now I want to concentrate on Saturday’s final: I want to leave Werder’s supporters in the best way possible, because it’s also thanks to them if in these years I’ve grown up, so to deserve this new opportunity».

Diego Ribas da Cunha

Born in Ribeirão Preto, on February 28th, 1985. Offensive midfielder, he’s got a compact and whippy body, with a very good technique and vision of play, he is an all-round player, good at dribbling, at sudden rhythm changes and able to create numerical superiority. Accurate in long launches, he’s got a strong kick and he’s particularly good at free kicks, abilities that make a very good goleador of him.
After having started in Santos in 2002, when he was only seventeen, two years after, and after having won a Championship, he goes to Porto where he stays for two seasons: with the Portuguese he wins an Intercontinental Cup, a Championship and a Portuguese Supercup, before getting to Bundesliga, in Werder Brema. In Germany, Diego finally bursts out: he wins a League Cup and in 2007 he is elected Championship Best Player.
In the meantime he achieves an increasingly important space in the Brazilian National Team, with which he wins two American Cups (in 2004 and in 2007) and a Bronze Medal at Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.
Diego will be the fifteenth Brazilian player in Juventus, after Altafini, Amauri, Athirson, Cinesinho Sidney Cunha, Leonardo Colella, Dino Da Costa, Emerson, Fernando Josè Puglia, Gladstone, Julio Cesar, Armando Miranda, Nenè, Sernagiotto, Bruno Siciliano.