The 2001–02 season was Juventus's 104th in existence and 100th consecutive season in the top flight of Italian football. Juventus ended a three-year drought of league titles, following a remarkable turnaround in fortunes during the final days of the season, when Inter suffered from a collapse of nerves in the closing stages. On the final day of the league season, Juventus won 2–0 away from home against Udinese, while Inter fell at Lazio 4–2, despite leading twice. That handed Juventus its 26th Serie A title, and made up for the disappointing exit from the second group stage in the UEFA Champions League. Juventus also reached the 2002 Coppa Italia final, but were defeated by Parma on away goals following a 2–2 draw on aggregate.
As for individual players, the season saw new goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon claiming a stature as the best keeper in the world, while David Trezeguet got his Serie A breakthrough, sharing the topscoring title with Dario Hübner of Piacenza. Alessandro Del Piero also played a crucial part in the success, scoring 16 goals.
Apart from Buffon, pre-season saw three significant signings. Lilian Thuram came from Parma along with Buffon, but failed to establish himself as centre-back and ended up on the right wing-back position. Pavel Nedvěd came from Lazio as a replacement for departed Zinedine Zidane after Pavel Nedvěd snubbed Manchester United, and performed at an acceptable level, without finding the form he had shown a few years before. Fellow Lazio signing Marcelo Salas was however a major flop, because of a serious cruciate ligament injury he suffered during a scoreless draw at Bologna, which kept him away for almost the entire season; a technically gifted, prolific goalscorer in his prime, Salas was subsequently plagued by injuries and his career was never the same again.
The sale of Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid of Spain from Juventus, was the world football transfer record at the time, costing the Spanish club €77.5 million. The intake of Gianluigi Buffon from Parma cost Juventus €45 million, making it the most expensive transfer for a goalkeeper of all time.
Players
Squad information
Transfers In Pos. Name from Type GK Gianluigi Buffon Parma DF Lilian Thuram Parma DF Cristian Zenoni A.C. Milan MF Pavel Nedvěd Lazio MF Enzo Maresca Bologna loan ended MF Marco Rigoni Ravenna loan ended FW Marcelo Salas Lazio FW Nicola Amoruso Napoli loan ended GK Landry Bonnefoi Cannes FW Marcelo Zalayeta Sevilla loan ended Out Pos. Name To Type MF Zinedine Zidane Real Madrid €77.5 million FW Filippo Inzaghi A.C. Milan GK Edwin van der Sar Fulham FW Daniel Fonseca River Plate GK Andreas Isaksson Djurgårdens FW Darko Kovačević Lazio MF Matteo Brighi Bologna loan FW Juan Esnaider Porto
Left club during season
Reserve squad
Competitions
Serie A
League table
Results summary
Results by round
Matches
Coppa Italia
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
UEFA Champions League
Group stage
Second group stage
Statistics
Appearances and goals Not including Coppa Italia appearances
! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Players transferred out during the season
References