There is only one sport in the world where to wear a particular jersey number you have to be the star of the team. The person who wears that number is the brains of the team, the player with the most imagination, the most class, often even considered a genius.

The sport we are talking about is soccer, which has a worldwide fan following estimated at 3 to 3.5 billion people, and the number we are talking about is 10. The greatest soccer legends have worn it, just remember Pele, Maradona, Messi, Platini, Zidane, Zico and Ronaldinho.

That number on the jersey of the club or of one's national team meant that that player was the strongest and most feared of all. And in Italy, where soccer is compared to religion, as indeed in South American countries and many European countries such as Spain, England and Germany, there have been many legendary number 10s. Sandro Mazzola, Gianni Rivera, Gianfranco Zola, Francesco Totti, Roberto Mancini, and undoubtedly the greatest of them all, Roberto Baggio.

But in a special all-time ranking, after Baggio, the strongest Italian number 10 was Alessandro Del Piero, a player of infinite class who delighted Juventus fans and the Italian national team for many years. His quality in dribbling, crosses and long-distance shots was such that he looked more like a painter who brushed the trajectories of the ball than a soccer player. Because of this characteristic, he was nicknamed Pinturicchio in Italy, comparing him to the Italian genius of 15th-century painting.

Del Piero, who was born in Conegliano, in the province of Treviso, turned 50 in November, and after retiring from soccer he decided to move to the United States. He lives in Los Angeles with his family, where he has opened a restaurant, N10, and a soccer school called Juventus Academy. But before his second life in the States, he entertained and enamored all Italians and others with his incredible imagination and skill.

He played professional soccer for 23 consecutive years, including 19 with Juventus, the club with which he won 6 Italian championships, 1 Coppa Italia, 4 Italian Super Cup, 1 Champions League, 1 Uefa Super Cup, 1 Intercontinental Cup, and scored 208 goals in 513 matches. With the Italian national team, however, he won the World Championship in 2006 and was runner-up in Europe in 2000.

A winning career, as few other Italian footballers can boast, but above all Del Piero has become a symbol for all Italians. A clean-cut guy, always correct on and off the field, always in the front row in helping the weakest and most unfortunate people. An idol for soccer fans, not only for those at his club but also for those all over Europe. In 2008, in a Champions League match, Del Piero scored two goals in the hallowed temple of world soccer, the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, and 80,000 Real Madrid fans stood up applauding the Italian number 10 for a few minutes. That episode was a testament to the greatness of Del Piero, one of the strongest soccer fantasists of all time.