Alessandro Del Piero is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a deep-lying forward, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. Since 2015, he has worked as a pundit for Sky Sport Italia. A technically gifted and creative supporting forward, a free-kick specialist, Del Piero is regarded by players and managers as one of the greatest players of his generation and as one of the best Italian players of all time, winning the Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year award in 1998 and 2008. A prolific goal-scorer, he is the second highest all-time Italian top-scorer in all competitions, with 346 goals, behind only Silvio Piola, with 390 goals. After beginning his career with Italian club Padova in Serie B in 1991, he moved to Juventus in 1993, where he played for 19 seasons, holds the club records for most goals and appearances. During his time at the club, he won six Serie A titles, the Coppa Italia, four Supercoppa Italiana titles, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, the UEFA Intertoto Cup, the Intercontinental Cup.

After leaving the club in 2012, he spent two seasons with Australian side Sydney FC. Del Piero has scored in every competition. In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations. In the same year, he was voted into the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll, a list of the 50 best European players of the past 50 years. Along with six awards in Italy for gentlemanly conduct, he has won the Golden Foot award, which pertains to personality as well as playing ability. At international level, Del Piero has represented the Italian national team at three FIFA World Cups and four UEFA European Football Championships, most notably winning the 2006 FIFA World Cup, reaching the final of UEFA Euro 2000 with Italy, he is the joint fourth highest scorer for the Italian national team, with 27 goals, alongside Roberto Baggio, behind only Silvio Piola with 30 goals, Giuseppe Meazza with 33 goals, Luigi Riva with 35 goals. Alessandro Del Piero was born in Veneto.

Del Piero is the son of Gino, an electrician, Bruna, a housekeeper. He played football in the backyard with two friends and Pierpaolo, as a child. All three dreamed of becoming footballers, but only Alessandro would manage to do so. Alessandro's older brother, Stefano played professional football for Sampdoria before an injury curtailed his career; the family lived in the hamlet of a rural home in San Vendemiano. While growing up, Del Piero's family did not have much money for travelling abroad, so he considered being a lorry driver in order to see the world. While playing for the local youth team of San Vendemiano, Del Piero used to feature as a goalkeeper, in order to gain more playing time, his mother thought it would be better for him to play in this role as he would not sweat, the possibility of him getting injured was less likely. His brother Stefano commented to their mother that, due to his skill, Alessandro was more suited to playing in a more offensive position, Del Piero switched to a forward role.

Del Piero began his rise to professional football in the ranks of San Vendemiano. In 1988, Del Piero was first spotted by scouts, he left home at the young age of 13 to play with the youth side of Padova, he joined the senior side during the 1991–92 season, at the age of 16, at the age of 17, he made his début in Serie B against Messina, under manager Mauro Sandreani, on 15 March 1992, coming on as a substitute for Roberto Putelli. The following season, on 22 November 1992, he scored his first professional goal in a 5–0 victory over Ternana. In 1993, thanks to Giampiero Boniperti, Del Piero was bought by Juventus for five billion lire, with an overlap of 150 million lire per season. In 1993, Del Piero transferred to Juventus and played for the Torinese club for 19 seasons until being released in the summer of 2012. Although manager Giovanni Trapattoni insisted that he trained with the senior team, he played with the Primavera squad, coached by Antonello Cuccureddu, helping the Juventus Youth team to win both the 1994 Torneo di Viareggio, the 1994 U-20 Scudetto.

Del Piero made his Serie A debut against Foggia on 12 September 1993 under Trapattoni, as a substitute, he scored his first goal in his next game against Reggiana on 19 September, after coming off the bench once again. On his full debut for Juventus, he netted a hat-trick against Parma. After his promising performances, Del Piero began to be deployed with more continuity, he managed 14 appearances for Juventus that season between youth matches, league matches, the Coppa Italia, the UEFA Cup, scoring 5 goals, which all came in Serie A, as Juventus finished the season in second place in the league; the next season saw Marcello Lippi take over as Juventus manager, as well as the introduction of a new team of directors, made up of Giraudo, Roberto Bettega, Luciano Moggi. Del Piero temporarily took his place in the first team alongside Gianluca Vialli and Fabrizio Ravanelli, flourishing at the opportunity given to him, Juventu

Thyrfing is a viking metal band from Sweden. The band is named after the royal sword Tyrfing from Norse mythology. Thyrfing was formed in 1995 by Jocke Kristensson, Peter Löf and Kimmy Sjölund. From the beginning, the band was meant to be a side project, as Patrik and Jocke put their main focus into their other band, Pantheon. Northern mythology and the Viking age was an interest of all the members, so the lyrics and the concept was focused upon this subject; the music was rather primitive and built upon slow pounding drums, heavy guitars and medieval synth-melodies. After two demo tapes that gained a lot of positive response in the underground scene, Thyrfing signed to the Dutch record label Hammerheart Records in 1997. In Stockholm's Sunlight Studio in Stockholm, their debut album was recorded, showing a much more varied songwriting; the album was released in March 1998. For their second album, this time recorded in the Abyss Studios, their music took on a more symphonic approach, still keeping with the roots from the older material.

For future live performances, Henke Svegsjö from Winds was recruited on guitar. He was regarded as a good choice, nowadays he is considered a full-member of the band. Once again with Tommy Tägtgren, Urkraft was recorded and released in August 2000. During that same year, the band held two mini-tours with Primordial and Shadowbreed throughout The Netherlands and Germany. In the autumn of 2001, the band entered Dug-Out Studio with well-known producer Daniel Bergstrand to record the most diverse and mature Thyrfing-album to date, Vansinnesvisor; the album was released in July the following year, masterly-packaged by Niklas Sundin, was considered a big step forward for the band. With more experimental vocals and focused songs, odd instruments such as keyed fiddle and home-made percussion, with a majority of Swedish lyrics, the band won new fans and rooted their position within the genre. To support the album, Thyrfing played two support gigs during the winter in Stockholm, did a small headliner tour in Benelux with Cruachan and Shadowbreed.

2003 followed with further live-promotion, such as the Generation Armageddon Festivals, a 12-day European tour throughout Europe, performances on the main festival stages of 2000 Decibel in Sweden and Wacken Open Air in Germany. Thyrfing entered EMI studios on April 18, 2005 to record their new album, released on November 21, 2005; the band played their first US show in January 2006 alongside Moonsorrow and Primordial at the Heathen Crusade metalfest in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. On March 13, 2007, the band posted a message on the official Thyrfing-site declaring that Thomas Väänänen and Henrik Svegsjö had decided to leave the band due to lack of motivation. Instead of Thomas, founder and ex-vocalist of Naglfar, Jens Rydén, is handling the vocals; the band decided to continue with one guitarist. In October 2008, Thyrfing released their album Hels Vite, their latest release is De Ödeslösa from March 2013. Jens Rydén - vocals, synthesizers Patrik Lindgren - guitars Fredrik Hernborg - guitars Joakim Kristensson - bass, vocals Dennis Ekdahl - drums Peter Löf - keyboards, synthesizers Kimmy Sjölund - bass Thomas Väänänen - vocals Vintras - guitars Henrik Svegsjö - guitars Thyrfing Valdr Galga Urkraft Vansinnesvisor Farsotstider Hels Vite De Ödeslösa Hednaland Solen svartnar Hednaland Official Website Encyclopedia Metallum page

The Warrior of Hirschlanden is a statue of a nude ithyphallic warrior made of sandstone, the oldest known Iron Age life-size anthropomorphic statue north of the Alps. It was a production of the Hallstatt culture dating to the 6th century BC, it is now in the Württembergisches Landesmuseum in Stuttgart, with a copy at the Hirschlanden site, where it was found. The preserved height is 1.50 m. The warrior wears a torc, a belt with a typical late Hallstatt dagger, a pointed hat made of birchbark. While the legs are modelled with some realism, the upper body is rather schematic and the face is sketchy, leading to speculation that the man might be intended to be seen as wearing a mask, as is known from burials in Klein-Klein, Austria, Trebeništa and the much earlier shaft-graves of Mycenae, ca. 1500 BC. The statue shows significant weathering, suggesting that it stood exposed to the elements for a long time before being buried. Other anthropomorphic statues of the early Iron Age have been found in Rottenburg, Tübingen and Stockach, but they are far more stylised, more carving than statue.

In the following La Tène period, anthropomorphic statues are still rare, but examples include the finds from Glauberg, the Mšecké Žehrovice Head, the sculptures at Roquepertuse. Greek influence has been discussed. Numerous black figure vessels from fortified settlements of the period attest trading contacts with the Mediterranean via the Rhône River and the Greek colony of Massilia. Much closer stylistic connections exist with the far more elaborate statues from Capestrano, Picenium and Casale Marittimo; the statue was found in Hirschlanden in 1963. The barrow was surrounded by a dry stone wall, it contained 16 burials, ranging from the beginning of the Iron Age to the beginning of the Late Iron Age. The statue was found north of the barrow, but is supposed to have been placed on the top. Piceni, Popolo d'Europa. Sabine Rieckhoff, Jörg Biel et al. Die Kelten in Deutschland. ISBN 3-8062-1367-4 Hirschlanden statue website including images