Luce di Stella • Kenan Yildiz

Chapter 1: Juve Girl

🎶 Perfect Day - Chris Lord Alge Mix — Hoku 🎶

Women don't belong in football.

That's a phrase other girls may have heard throughout their lives, but not me. When I was four years old, my uncle John Elkann took me to see a football game for the first time. And since that day, he had destined me to make my path in football. Not as a player, but as the President of our family's football club - one day.

My family was undoubtedly one of Italy's most iconic dynasties, some called us Italy's secret royal family, others compared us to the Kennedys - I was an Agnelli and my great-grandfather was probably the most iconic Italian figure of the 20th century: Gianni Agnelli. We own or hold stakes in Ferrari, Philips, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, The Economist, Christian Louboutin, whatever, look it up on Wikipedia. And Juventus. Juve is our baby. Everyone born into our family is automatically a football and motorsport fan. Juventus and Ferrari were imprinted in our DNA.

I knew what responsibility would lay on my shoulders one day, but I was also allowed to enjoy my school and university times. However, after a massive fuck-up from one of my other uncles, who had held the reigns of the football club until now, Uncle John called me and when Uncle John called, you fucking answered.

And here I stood now, on the first Monday in July - while my uni friends all flocked out to their holiday destinations, I was set to have my first day at Juventus. Not as a President, my Lord, I was just 19 years old - but Uncle John had given me a seat on the board and I was set to work in the strategy department, to "set my own sails", in his words. It was going to be a hard 2023/24 season: we had been excluded from European competitions and also had to fight our way back to the top after not having won the Scudetto for two years now.

I arrived at the Continassa on a bright, hot morning - the drive had been exceptionally quick today as every person that lived in Turin had escaped the city and was spending the summer at their holiday homes on the Ligurian coast.
"Good morning" our current President Gianluca Ferrero greeted me as he opened my car door on my designated parking slot #2 with my name on it.
"It would be if I didn't have to be here to straighten out every one of your guys' fuck-ups" I huffed and swung my legs out of my Abarth 500.

Generally speaking, I was a nice person. But I wasn't when it came to business. I wasn't here to make friends, I was here to be a respected, and maybe also a little feared, leader. Gianluca blabbered all the time, trying to tell me how amazing him and his board were, what great numbers we were writing and blah, blah, blah. I was finally introduced to Martina, the head of the marketing & strategy team, with whom I'd be working closely. I should say that I was going to work under her but everyone knew that, truth speaking, I wasn't.

After promising Gianluca that I'd have lunch with him, just so that he would finally leave me alone now, I was able to start my computer and get to work. I worked on every point and idea I had so that I could present my plans for the club and the direction I wanted us to move at this week's board meeting. The transfer window had just opened, but the men's and women's senior team weren't everything. We needed to work on our youth teams - promoting young promising football talents was something that my country wasn't really good in.

I met with our sporting director and he presented me his plans for this transfer window - and I was surprised by his good work. I also managed to survive lunch with Gianluca - who licked my ass for a whole hour - but then again, I was used to boring family dinners or meetings. In the afternoon, I paid a visit to our finance department and let it sink into everyone's heads that we couldn't afford any more fuck-ups like my beloved Uncle did by cooking the books. Last point on my agenda for today was the announcement of my new position with the press department, who took some head shots of mine for the website and social media.