Grazie, Pado

Juventus Football Club can today confirm the departure of Simone Padoin after an agreement of € 0.6 million, to be paid over the course of three financial years, was reached with Cagliari for the player's registration rights.

Simone calls time on his partnership with the Old Lady not only as the firmest of fan favourites but also as one of eight Bianconeri to have contributed to the club’s history-making quintet of league titles, a feat that will live as long in the hearts of Juve fans as the memories shared with their irrepressible number 20.

Hard-working, humble, devoted to his team-mates and a player and personality that every successful squad needs in its dressing room, you will struggle to find more universally respected and appreciated professionals than Padoin.

The nature of the celebrations for il Pado’s three goals for the club - against Fiorentina in 2012, Atalanta on the final day in 2014 and Palermo in April - provide ample proof for the above statements.

Take the latter for example. Mobbed by his colleagues and offered a standing ovation by every single one of the 40,000 supporters present, the reaction to his superbly timed-burst and finish was one of the great Juventus Stadium moments of the season and served to demonstrate everything that needs to be known about Simone.

That Spring strike, followed by a fifth consecutive Scudetto ceremony just under a month later, served as the perfect send-off for a player who has guaranteed reliability, commitment, tactical nous and no lack of technical quality whenever called upon first by Antonio Conte and then Massimiliano Allegri.

They say that trophies are won not by a team’s starting eleven but by the strength and impact of its substitutions and, as Juventus’ most used replacement in Serie A over the past five seasons (47), Pado has consistently offered the kind of title-winning support from the bench that few can.

When brought to the club from Atalanta on transfer deadline day in January 2012, Juventus fans knew that in Simone they were welcoming a hard-working, honest professional. On his departure, they will wave goodbye to a five-time Italian champion and undisputed protagonist of black and white history.

A right-back, an anchor man, a box-to-box midfielder, a winger, a ball-winner, an undoubted Juventus hero.

Grazie, Simo.