Andrea Pirlo: The Aesthete's Athlete

There is a wonderful anecdote about Andrea Pirlo from Italy's 2006 World Cup training camp. Marcello Lippi's assistant Ciro Ferrara was joining in the session, and Pirlo demanded the ball from Ferrara; the coach passed elsewhere because Pirlo was heavily marked. After the exercise, Pirlo angrily asked why he had not been given the ball. The midfielder listened to Ferrara's explanation, but responded immediately: "Non era un consiglio quello." 'It wasn't a piece of advice,' is the rough translation of that reply, but a more colloquial version is apparent: 'I wasn't asking you, I was telling you.' Take that, Ciro. That was nine years ago, but nothing changes. In his autobiography, Pirlo describes how he sees himself as a director, both on the pitch and in life. If that depiction hints at an air of self-awarded authority, Pirlo has every right to feel in charge of the ball. "To pass the ball to Pirlo is to hide it in a safe," former Polish great Zbigniew Boniek once said. In a long list of bad decisions causing Milan's sad decline, allowing Pirlo to leave on a free transfer may rank as the worst. The midfielder recalls how his agent would call him every day with updated offers as the 2010/11 season drew to a close. "The real reason why I left Milan was because Allegri wanted to use Ambrosini and Van Bommel in front of the defence," said Pirlo of his exit. "Milan decided that I was no longer useful to them. I understood that immediately during our meeting. Allegri wanted to use other players in my position." It was eventually Kevin-Prince Boateng and Alberto Aquilani who became Milan's solution to fill the gap. Garth Crooks' now famous quote about Spurs selling Elvis and buying the Beatles when selling Gareth Bale is bad enough. Milan replaced Carole King with the Cheeky Girls. Those hard feelings only make the status quo even more remarkable. There were raised eyebrows and stifled laughter when Juventus replaced Antonio Conte with Allegri, but the former Milan coach has turned the joke on its head. He now has Juventus on the verge of their first ever treble. On Saturday, Pirlo could become only the second Italian (after Saul Malatrasi in 1969) to win the European Cup with two different Italian clubs. Allegri, the man who Pirlo says spurned him at the San Siro, has orchestrated his final hurrah. Pirlo still holds resentment about his Milan exit. "They gave me a pen," he notes in his autobiography. "A lovely pen, but still a pen. Filled with banal blue ink. Adriano Galliani told me 'Make sure you don't use that to sign a new contract with Juventus.' At least he got the joke right." Gianluigi Buffon remarked that Juventus had landed "the signing of the century". It's hard to disagree with that sentiment. It's worth offering a brief word of balance against this tide of Milan idiocy, however, for the Andrea Pirlo who left Milan and the Andrea Pirlo who arrived at Juventus appear to be very different beasts. His improvement in the latter stages of his career is beyond anyone's expectations. Milan's training centre is credited with extending the careers of many, but it was as if leaving the Milanello allowed Pirlo's career to be recharged. Either that or the added incentive of a pointed two-finger salute at his former club ignited something within the midfielder. In his first year in Turin, Pirlo enjoyed his annus mirabilis. He won the Scudetto for the third time, registering more assists than any other Serie A player. He also completed over 500 passes more than any other player in Italy, and only Xavi managed more in Europe's top five leagues. Pirlo was named Serie A Footballer of the Year by the Italian Footballers'
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