Little Prince rising to prominence

If only Claudio Marchisio's Turinese accent was stronger, it would make the stereotype of 'local lad done good' jump out of the page at you. The Juventus midfielder, though, while retaining several of the peculiar traits of his origin, has matured too steadily on and off the pitch to be cast in the role of someone whose imagination and dreams barely stretched beyond the confines of Chieri, the small town right outside Turin where he was born in January 1986.

As the youngest in a Juventus-supporting family, a young Marchisio would dream of one day donning the famous black-and-white shirt, following in the footsteps of his favourite player, Alessandro Del Piero, whose poster adorned a wall in his bedroom. Along with the rest of his season-ticket holding family, Marchisio was in the uncomfortable, poorly-sighted stands of the now demolished Stadio Delle Alpi on that early December day in 1994 when Del Piero scored one of the most memorable goals in the recent history of Italian football.

By that time, Marchisio was already a member of Juventus' youth system, where he wore the No. 10 shirt as a tribute to Del Piero. His ambition to be like Alex stretched to becoming a striker, but his coaches detected something else: that his strong running, stamina and body type were more conducive to a career in midfield.

Evidence of that came in 1998, when a 12-year-old Marchisio, wearing that No. 10 jersey a couple of sizes too big, galloped from one end of the muddy pitch to the other, exchanged a quick one-two with Paolo De Ceglie and lobbed the goalkeeper with a sweet touch. When later shown footage from that goal (recorded by his father) during a show hosted by Juve's in-house TV channel, Marchisio almost broke down in tears at the thought of having come so far since that day.

Kids scoring wonder goals against overmatched opponents, though, are a dime-a-dozen and it is a testimony to his attitude, determination and work ethic that Marchisio made the transition to professional player and, now, a regular member of the Juventus starting midfield.

His place had been threatened during the summer. As soon as Antonio Conte began installing his system - be it 4-4-2 or 4-2-4 - and Juventus signed Andrea Pirlo and Arturo Vidal (who looked like the ideal central midfield partner for the former Milan passmaster), insiders started wondering what would happen with Marchisio, who had just extended his contract to 2016. They should not have worried.

Marchisio had, after all, been a jack-of-all-trades for Juventus and Italy for a number of years already. His multidimensional skills have worked both for and against him, as coaches felt free to move him around in order to accommodate players with lesser qualities in their own positions.

As an example, during the 2009-10 season, when Ciro Ferrara was in charge, Marchisio played either on the left or on the right of a three-man midfield in a 4-3-1-2, was a nominal left winger several times in a 4-4-2 and also partnered Felipe Melo in central midfield in the same formation.

Marcello Lippi used him in left midfield in the only two matches Marchisio started in the ill-fated - and badly coached - 2010 World Cup campaign, and when the current season dawned doubts over his best position arose again. "He's a superb central midfielder, and that's where he will play. He can also play wider but only in an emergency. End of the story," was how Conte replied to several questions on the matter, and you could picture the player himself nodding in agreement.