Andrea Pirlo,
Ufficiale OMRI (born 19 May 1979), is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who plays for Serie A club Juventus and for the Italian national team. He is usually deployed as a deep-lying playmaker for both Juventus and Italy and is regarded as a leading exponent of this position.
Praised for his technique, dribbling, control, incredible vision,
inventive play and his accurate passing ability, he is also a set-piece specialist and is known for his long distance shooting and passing.
Fellow players on the Italian team gave him the nickname
l'architetto ("the architect"), because his long passes frequently set up goal-scoring opportunities for the Italy national football team.
In recent years, Juventus fans also dub him
il professore ("the professor") and
Mozart , as a fun reference to the Austrian composer's prodigious ability.
After three seasons on the Internazionale books, Pirlo was sold to fierce rivals Milan for 35 million Italian lire on 30 June 2001. (the last day of 2000–01 financial year)
(about €18 million) but the transfer fee paid via partially by Dražen Brnčić to Inter for undisclosed fee, and made Milan had a profit of €9.641 million.
In the same window Inter and Milan also swapped Cristian Brocchi (25 billion lire;
€12.9 million) to Guly (undisclosed fee; €8.537 million profit
); Matteo Bogani (valued €3.6 million
) for Paolo Ginestra (undisclosed fee €3.585M profit
)
The deals later reported by press were also aimed to create "false
profit" by inflating the transfer fees in the swap deal, which Serie C
players Ginestra and Bogani both created about €3.5 million "profit" for
both clubs but in terms of useless registration rights.
It was at Milan where he found his true strides developing into a world class player and one of the best deep-lying playmakers and set-piece specialists in the world. With Milan, he won two
Serie A tites and was an integral part of Milan's midfield, as they went on to win two Champions League titles in 2003 and 2007, also helping them to the final in 2005, in which he finished as the second highest assist provider of the tournament with 4 assists.
He also won an Italian Cup, a Supercoppa Italiana and two UEFA Super Cups with Milan in 2003 and 2007, as well as their first FIFA World Club Cup title in 2007. His most forgettable incident, however, was probably the penalty miss during 2005 UEFA Champions League Final, as his spot kick was saved by Jerzy Dudek.
Pirlo started his career as an offensive midfielder until coach Carlo Mazzone developed a deep-seated playmaking role while at Brescia, with Roberto Baggio in the attacking midfield role. A notable moment in his Brescia career was his long pass which assisted Roberto Baggio's late equaliser against Juventus at the Delle Alpi Stadium, in 2001. Fatih Terim and Carlo Ancelotti further-developed this role at Milan, to allow Pirlo to play alongside other talented attacking midfielders, such as Rui Costa and eventually Kaka. Since then, he formed a formidable partnership with Gennaro Gattuso (as well as with Clarence Seedorf, who also supported his playmaking role) in the midfield and has earned the nickname
the metronome for the way he sets the team's rhythm.
He led Serie A
in the 2002–03 season in four special categories – passes played
(2589), ball possession (123 hours played and 39 minutes), successful
balls (661), and successful passes (2093). This implies that he averaged
almost 90 passes per game. He led Milan in minutes played for the
2006–07 season with 2,782. In October 2007, he was nominated for the
both the 2007 FIFA World Player of the Year and the 2007 World's Best
Playmaker Awards but they went to Milan teammate Kaká instead. After Kaká and coach Carlo Ancelotti left Milan in the summer of 2009, Chelsea tested Milan's resolve by bidding $12 million and Claudio Pizarro for Pirlo. The club rejected the offer and Pirlo was said to be contemplating a transfer request. On 5 August, club owner Silvio Berlusconi decided not to sell Pirlo, who said he was overjoyed and wanted to end his career at Milan.
On 21 October 2009, Pirlo scored a notable 30 meter goal in Milan's 3–2 win over Real Madrid.
Milan played host to Genoa on 25 September 2010, Pirlo provided a lovely lifted ball over the top of the defense to set striker Zlatan Ibrahimović free to score the solitary goal of the game.
On 2 October Pirlo scored a 40-yard goal against Parma to give Milan their first away win of the 2010–11 season.
On 14 May 2011, Pirlo appeared in his last match for Milan, coming on as a half-time substitute for Massimo Ambrosini as the club celebrated their Title with a 4–1 victory over Cagliari.
Four days later, Pirlo confirmed that he would be leaving Milan at the
end of the 2010–11 season, after a mutual decision not to renew his
contract.
In his last season in Milan, Pirlo only appeared in the league 17 times notching just one goal and three assists.
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