Del Piero to give A-League credibility

The man who has won nearly every honour the game can offer has agreed terms with Sydney and is expected to sign a contract worth $2 million in Turin on Monday.

It would be the day a superstar of the game thumbs his nose at European football because he reckons playing football in Australia is more appealing.

Wow, how good is this!

The sensational news of the agreement came through via Twitter just after seven in the evening on Friday.

As the tidings spread like wildfire and fans were getting excited by the prospect of Del Piero bringing his silky skills from the world's biggest stadiums to the modest playing fields of the A-League, the magnitude of the coup and what this would mean to Australian football began to slowly sink in.

Del Piero spent most of his professional career with Serie A giant Juventus.

He scored 286 goals in 698 matches for Juve with whom he won six league titles and the UEFA Champions League in 1996.

Striker Dwight Yorke was huge on and off the field yet 'mezza punta' (second striker) Del Piero will be bigger, even allowing for the fact that Italian players - even those of his calibre - are not as well known among mainstream Australian sports fans as those who play in England.

The Trinidad and Tobago striker came here in 2005 with a huge reputation after having played a key role in Manchester United's famous treble in 1999.

Del Piero would be expected to come here in the next two weeks as a central figure of the famous 'bianconeri' for 19 years.

Yorke had never played in a FIFA World Cup before he signed for Sydney because his country had never qualified for one until it reached the 2006 finals.

Del Piero, on the other hand, played in three World Cups and two European championships before becoming a world champion in 2006 although by then he was more of a squad player than a starter.

Which is why Del Piero, who is now 37, would be the biggest drawcard of the A-League in its seven-year history.

Basically because he would be the best and most successful player to have performed here.

Can we imagine what knowledge and know-how he can impart on Sydney's younger players who should consider themselves so lucky to be working with such a personality on a daily basis?

Can we also imagine how much will the profile of the A-League be boosted by Del Piero's decision to play here?

The astonishing acquisition of Del Piero, who is known in Italy as 'Pinturicchio' in honour of the Renaissance painter who was famous for eye-catching frescoes or simply 'Ale', would also galvanise Sydney's notorious supporters into action.

The city's fickle fans may have had some valid reasons for not turning up at the Allianz Stadium.

The club has not helped matters either because it has earned a reputation as the drama queen of the A-League, where stability and sound management especially in the first years have been as rare as goalscoring goalkeepers.

But the club's new management has listened to criticism, has taken it on board and has done its best to bring back the glory days of season one when it won the league and drew an average home crowd of just under 17,000.

True to its word, Sydney has sought to boost the entertainment level of the side to appease those who claimed that the 'wow' factor has been missing for too long.

And who could be better at doing this than 'capitano' Del Piero who has never courted controversy off the field and who has always behaved impeccably on it.

Sydney has finally done the right thing by its members, its supporters and the league.

The least its disillusioned fans could do is show their appreciation by coming back in droves to Sydney FC matches.