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ON a sparklingly bright Sydney morning, Alessandro Del Piero is doing the corporate duties he probably enjoys the most - kicking a football around with a group of kids, some of whom really don't have an idea of the fame of their teammate.
But then he too was one of them once, just dreaming of a life in football. Long ago, long before the journey that took him to Juventus, and a World Cup final, and in the end to play out its closing credits at Sydney FC.
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And it's when he recalls that innocent youth, that he also recalls just how close he came to no life at all, let alone one that would make him one of the greatest footballers of all time.
"I love to watch them, because they play with their heart, they play to enjoy and for fun," he says, keen to make sure the children have enough sunscreen on.
"They play to win too, but it's a pure atmosphere, and sometimes I think back to when I was that age, and I ask my brothers what I was like then. I was very young when I was playing, at three or four, but even before that I liked to be with the ball.
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"In Europe you can start with a team around six years old, but at eight or nine I had a crash with a car, I had to rest for more than six months. So it wasn't until I was nine that I could play properly with a team, San Vendemiano.
"It was the second day of the school term in September, I rode my bike and had a big collision with a car. I went to the hospital and spent 15 days in a head brace. Luckily then everything was good, or . . ."
It's a big "or" because by then he was marked out as one of the young elite, and already had an infatuation with the game that it had to be his life.
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"I have always loved to play the game, every moment of the day, but maybe at seven, maybe a bit before, it was my life - I dreamt about football, thought about it, talked about it, all the time," he said.
"With my teammates, it was clear there were two or three of us better than the others. But it still needed constant work to improve, and that's a good state of mind."
That, you'd think, would be the message he tries to impart to the children with whom he unflaggingly poses for photos and autographs, but there's a simpler philosophy that he's adamant is the way to get every child into playing sport, let alone football.
Alessandro Del Piero of Sydney FC. Source: Getty Images
"With children you have to think of the age - for sure they have to enjoy it, first," he said. "It's not only win, win, win or improve, improve, improve. If they enjoy it first, then you can help them with some smart thinking. Let them play, let them enjoy.
"But in the end if they improve it's good for everyone because they learn something different. You give them the knowledge, to make right decisions and become better.
"Football is a great place to start to give energy to children. They dream about football, and becoming a footballer, and if they have a chat with you or a picture with you, it can inspire them for life. It's exactly what happened with me when I was a child."
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