New great upheaval at Juventus less than 24 hours after having been eliminated by Lyon in the champions League, the club from turin has dismissed Maurizio Sarri and inducted, to everyone's surprise, Andrea Pirlo, bombed-coach of one of the biggest clubs in the world without the slightest experience of the position.
Juve has so totally changed in a day, and the famous "a few days of reflection" called for in the president Andrea Agnelli on Friday after the elimination are really past very quickly. The management of Juventus has in fact recognised the failure of Sarri, the graft never having caught up with the former coach of Napoli and Chelsea, which promises beautiful game has not been held.
But, with Pirlo, it is a new radical choice that made Agnelli. Of course, unlike Sarri, the 2006 world champion has a perfect environment to have played at Juventus from 2011 to 2015 and there is. But the old superb midfield of the Nazionale has never led, nor level, nor below, nor in the young. He came simply to be named coach of the team under 23 years of Juventus, and has not yet led any session.
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"Maestro" to "Mister"
"The choice made today is based on the belief that Pirlo has all the cards to direct his debut on the bench of a team that is experienced and talented in order to get new success," explained Juve in its press release. When he was introduced as coach of the youth of Juve, Agnelli had even whispered that he saw a future on the floor above for Pirlo, which he granted according to the Italian media, a very high level of confidence. "He starts this adventure to be able one day to lead the first team," said the president of torino.
The adventure is thus accelerated and, as written in the Juventus in its press release, Pirlo is now past, " Maestro ", a nickname that accompanied him during his career, " Mister ", the term used in Italy to refer to the football coaches, regardless of level or age category. But here it is all the same launched in the big bath in a brutal way. Because, if his name is added to a long list of great players of the 1990s and 2000s to become coaches (Zidane, Guardiola, Xavi, Lampard, Gerrard, Vieira, Gattuso, Henry...), it is done without learning. Most of its now counterparts have started with young people, or as assistants, or in small clubs. It starts at the top.
Gianluigi Buffon older than his coach
his talents as a player, you know, the natural elegance, the quality of single-pass, excellence on set pieces and the innate sense of the geometry of football. But who is "coach Pirlo" ? Since the end of his player career, in 2017, the United States, the native of Brescia, was a discreet actor in the world of calcio. He refused a position within the Italian federation to keep activities on the Sky, where he has been a consultant without enthusiasm or excite.
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He walked in a few commercials and a few magazines its elegance amateur fashion and wine, as well as his blasé, which has earned him a new level of popularity on the Internet around the slogan "Pirlo is not impressed" (Pirlo is not impressed). But, at 41 years old, the former player of AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus will now have to rediscover the frantic pace of the football elite, which has been his for twenty years.
He will also find some players who were his teammates, such as Gianluigi Buffon, now older than his coach. "So, now, I have to call you Mister ?" joked the goalkeeper on Twitter. In 2011, a few months after the arrival to Juve for Pirlo, left free to AC Milan, Buffon had already talked about this transfer as " the deal of the century ". Nine years later, Juventus tries again the bet.
