Remembering Edgar Davids' Importance to Juventus' European Dominance

He looked nervous. After taking much longer than usual to get the ball to sit perfectly on the penalty spot, he waited for referee Manuel Diaz Vega to finish speaking with Juventus goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi before finally beginning his run-up.

Stuttering just before he took aim, the shot was embarrassingly tame and poorly struck. The goalkeeper made a routine save. For a fleeting moment, Ajax's Edgar Davids thought about blasting the rebound, but he decided against it and began the long, lonely walk back to the centre circle.

Ciro Ferrara, Jari Litmanen, Gianluca Pessotto, Arnold Scholten and Michele Padovano all converted before Peruzzi also saved from Sonny Silooy. Vladimir Jugovic then stepped up and rifled his effort low into the bottom corner. Edwin van der Sar was beaten, and Rome’s Stadio Olimpico erupted.

Juventus were champions of Europe once again, and their supporters celebrated wildly into the night, with their joy at seeing Gianluca Vialli lift the 1995/96 Champions League trophy aloft continuing unabated. But there was work to be done.

The captain, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Paulo Sousa, Massimo Carrera and Pietro Vierchowod all moved on that summer, leaving director general Luciano Moggi to rebuild the victorious team almost entirely.

He brought in a raft of new players, including Alen Boksic, Christian Vieri, Mark Iuliano, Paolo Montero and Zinedine Zidane. With those new faces, the club would embark on a thrilling 1996/97 campaign, winning the Serie A title and reaching a second successive UEFA Champions League final.

While they also won the Intercontinental Cup—an accomplishment discussed in a previous post—that 3-1 defeat at the hands of Borussia Dortmund brought even more changes.

Jugovic, Boksic and Vieri were sold as Alessandro Birindelli and Pippo Inzaghi joined coach Marcello Lippi’s squad. They became a machine, going undefeated through the first three months of the season and looking completely unstoppable at home and abroad as they eased into the latter stages of the Champions League once more.

Meanwhile, the man whose missed penalty helped spark this new era of dominance was not doing quite so well. Davids joined AC Milan but broke his leg shortly after moving to Serie A, explaining in a 2010 interview with FourFourTwo just how difficult that period was for him:

"

That was one of the worst times I've ever had because you don’t speak the language very well. You’re sitting at home with your television, but you can't really understand it. The first couple of weeks you can't move with your leg because you are afraid of thrombosis. It was bad. It helped that every couple of weeks, I was driven to Amsterdam because that's where I was recuperating.

"

Playing just 19 games, he failed to make much of an impression and was on the fringe of the side as the 1997/98 season began. By December, he clearly wasn’t part of the Rossoneri starting XI. But everything would change when Juventus moved to sign him from their rivals.

He was instantly transformed. Finally fit again, he set about proving just how wrong Milan had been to give up on him, feeding on the belief and trust placed in him by his new coach in Turin.

"A lot of it was down to Lippi," Davids told FourFourTwo. "He had confidence in me, and when he has confidence in someone, he puts them in straight away."

Yet it wouldn’t be all straightforward, as doctors diagnosed him with glaucoma in 1999, only for the eye condition to give birth to his trademark look.

"I was worried, and I did think I might have to retire," he continued in that same FourFourTwo interview. "But then I found out there [was an option]: wear goggles. It was strange the first time I had to play in them; they would steam up, so it took time to adjust, but I don’t think it affected my performances."

ALBERTO RAMELLA/Associated Press

Now the Davids we recognise today, he also became the perfect foil for the skill and grace of Zidane. The energetic and resilient midfielder worked tirelessly but with incredible tactical awareness and diligence, making himself as important to the Bianconeri as his French team-mate ever was.

Lippi labelled him "my one-man engine room," per CNN, allowing those ahead of him to play with far greater freedom, safe in the knowledge that Davids was behind them to protect the defence.

Over his six or so years with the club, he played in over 240 games for Juventus. Davids was a model of consistency and dedication to the Bianconeri cause, as he helped lift three Serie A titles, two Supercoppa Italiana and the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

They also reached two Champions League finals, losing 1-0 to Real Madrid in 1998 and on penalties to Milan at Old Trafford in 2003. Substituted after 65 minutes, he did not have chance to redeem himself with a spot-kick and could do nothing to help the Old Lady once again taste defeat.

As can be seen in the video above, Davids' playing style stood somewhat in juxtaposition to his off-field image. So easily recognisable, he became a prominent figure in a number of advertising campaigns such as the one below, where his incredible skill and technical ability shone through.

"It is important to be gritty and strong to win back the ball and give consistency to a team," he said in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport last year (h/t Football Italia).

His time in Turin was not without controversy, however. The Italian Football Federation suspended him in 2001 after he tested positive for the banned substance Nandrolone, per the Telegraph. That ban was initially two years, but it was reduced on appeal to just four months, per BBC Sport.

Davids left Juventus in January 2004, with his loan arrival at Barcelona sparking something of a revival at the Camp Nou before he moved permanently to Inter Milan that summer. That stay lasted just one season and was followed by spells at Tottenham Hotspur, Ajax, Crystal Palace and Barnet before his retirement in 2014.

He was an essential part of one of the best and most dominant sides Europe has ever seen, doing the little things that help a team to win and ensuring his infectious tenacity spurred his team-mates to new heights.

Davids was honoured with a star on the Walk of Fame at the new Juventus Stadium in 2011, but he was unimpressed when he was compared to Arturo Vidal 12 months later.

"He is a very good player," he said of the Chile international during an interview with Cesare Polenghi of Goal. "I want him to do well at Juventus, and he is doing exceptionally well. But there is only one Edgar Davids, and there will never be another one."

That is undoubtedly true, and it is a shame. He is arguably the exact player missing from the current team. His time in black-and-white stripes should never be forgotten, because Davids truly was a unique and special midfielder, one Bianconeri fans were fortunate to watch.