What have Juventus players been doing during Italy’s coronavirus lockdown?

We’re nearly two weeks into Italy being completely shut down as a functioning country due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. When the lockdown will actually end and people can resume some aspect of normalcy is completely unknown at this point. Just about as unknown as when the number of new cases and deaths will start to slow down in Italy, which has now seen more people lose their life due to COVID-19 than any other country.

This virus, of course, has hit Juventus close to home with Daniele Rugani and then Blaise Matuidi testing positive for COVID-19. Rugani, the first player in Italy to test positive, set off the wave that meant Juventus players and staff — a total of more than 100 people — have been in quarantine ever since.

No training.

No interacting with teammates in person.

None of what we would assume is business as usual for the team that was sitting atop the Serie A standings when the league shut things down and Italy went into lockdown shortly thereafter.

What have Juve players been doing as they’ve been forced to stay inside their homes during the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent isolation period?

Here’s a sampling of what they’ve been posting on social media.

Paulo Dybala

In a very unsurprising development, Paulito has been one of the most active Juventus players on social media since the nation-wide lockdown went into effect. That’s almost always the case during the season, and only continued to be that way with more and more free time on his hands these days.

Over the past week or so, Dybala has:

• Showed off that he can cook a little bit.
• Done some wall sits to try and stay fit.
• Played a game of Keepie Uppie with his lovely girlfriend. (For the record, Dybala won as she tried to kick the ball back to him and it ended up going into the bushes.)
• Showed off his massive jersey collection from his years as a professional footballer.

You will probably notice the timestamp on his cooking video post. It happened to come right after a random report surfaced that Dybala had tested positive for coronavirus. (Those were QUICKLY shot down by more reliable sources.) Seeing as Juventus itself was quick to announce that Daniele Rugani — who said he’s feeling good during an online Q&A with Claudio Zuliani earlier this week — had tested positive and over 100 players and staff were put into quarantine, the only place to truly believe what’s what is Juve’s official website.

Matthijs de Ligt

Our big Dutch baby boy has done what a lot of football players have done in recent days — been challenged to juggle something while locked up at home. Appropriate enough, and something that a lot of United States residents can relate to, de Ligt chose to juggle not a ball but a roll of toilet paper while trying to kill some time. How do you rate him?

He’s such a good young man to sanitize his hands first before juggling. Follow his lead.

Martina Rosucci

Some of the most-seen social media posts coming out of Italy these days outside of the unfortunate news updates has been how apartment buildings have basically started singing in unison throughout the day. Following the lead of some of their Italian national team teammates down in Florence, Rosucci and Juventus Women teammate Cristiana Girelli took to Instagram live on Monday night to serenade the

Their song choice, you might be wondering?

Deano, baby.

They’ve got good taste.

Since their first patio concert, Rosucci and Girelli have sung for their neighbors a few more times before the sun goes down. They might not be getting a record deal and ditching football within the next year or two, but it’s good to see them keeping it light as can be.

Cecilia Salvai

Salvai is easily one of the most genuine and gracious people currently employed at Juventus. She is known for helping new signings acclimate to life in Turin and at Juventus all the while becoming one of the Juve ACL Surgery Gang after last season’s showdown against Fiorentina at Allianz Stadium.

She’s also a very active — and good follow — on Instagram, which is not surprising with how she’s clearly one of the emotional leaders on the Juventus Women squad as well as a very good person in general.

Like a good chunk of the Juventus Women contingent that was with Italy who returned early from the Algarve Cup prior to the final against Germany, Salvai has basically gone from playing on the international level to suddenly stuck inside in what seems like the snap of the fingers.

Leave it to her to make some good out of a tough situation. What do you do when you’ve got a Good Dog™ and feel the need to wear the Juve colors while stuck at home? You involve the dog in it.

Ten out of 10. Would love to have a Good Dog™ in a Juve jersey. (Then again, I’ve got a tuxedo cat, so she’s technically in Juventus colors 24/7/365, so there.)

Douglas Costa

Costa is the resident gamer of the Juventus squad, and he is very much open about it. You need more than your fingers and toes to count the number of times over the past couple of years he has lived in Turin that Costa has showed on social media that he’s online playing his Xbox. His game of choice is usually Fortnite, although there’s probably some Call of Duty that has snuck in there.

But like Salvai, Costa has made sure to include his dog — which hasn’t exactly been a presence on social media until recently — in his posts. And, in typical Costa fashion, it involves him working out at home. (Seriously, check his IG feed from this past summer. Dude was a MACHINE at his home gym.)

Wow, who knew that Douglas Costa’s dog decided to shadow as an Inter defender from the Derby d’Italia earlier this month.

Ha. Got ‘eem.

Is it really any kind of surprise that Costa is so good at dribbling in small windows? Look at where he practices at home. He’s got furniture — and now a very Good Dog™ — to try and void running into.

Laura Giuliani

Juventus Women’s No. 1 goalkeeper gave a very lengthy and very good interview with Juventus TV earlier this season in which about two-thirds of the way through one of her cats just strolled into the picture and hung out for a couple minutes.

So, it’s not a surprise that the feline troop at Casa Giuliani has made its way into her lockdown posts within the last few days.

You will also notice there that Juventus Women’s No. 1 has a black and white cat. Maybe it’s coincidence, maybe it’s (like me) and a little bit of a choice at the time of adoption. Either way, Red showed some good form while catching that toy. Must have been watching Cat Mom when she plays in goal, I guess.

Sami Khedira

Seeing as Italy is on lockdown, I can’t go with the usual joke about Khedira being in Mallorca that Mario Mandzukic made so infamous around here a couple of years ago as they enjoyed champagne and cigars with Stephan Lichtsteiner after clinching the Scudetto.

However, Brother Sami has taken up all this sudden free time to learn some new things.

And it has nothing to do with the game he is paid to play.

While we don’t exactly know the extent of Sami’s history on the piano, the tone of his tweet makes it seem like he’s picking up a new song rather than a completely new hobby.

And hey, Khedira probably has a good amount of time to continue to dust off his fingers and hit the piano keys some more before he gets back on the field with his teammates.

At least this time it doesn’t look like he’s got Lichtsteiner and Mandzukic heckling him. (I miss those two guys. I’m sure you do, too. They were fun. Grumpy, but fun.)