“Watching him play, I thought God exists because it’s simply embarrassing how good he is…” – Gianluigi Buffon.
The Architect, Metronome, Mozart, The Professor: just some of the nicknames bestowed upon one of New York City FC’s latest signings.
“Give him time and he will destroy you,” Paul Scholes once said of the midfielder who defines the wine-based maxim of only getting better with age.
Pirlo joins New York City FC and Major League Soccer very much at the peak of his powers having played a pivotal role in Juventus reaching the UEFA Champions League Final and winning a fourth-consecutive Serie A title.
In a game which is increasingly centred on pace and distance-covered metrics, the Brescia-born maestro has carved out a niche as a man who plays the game at his own pace, his name becoming shorthand for the “deep-lying playmaker” role.
Compared to what would follow, Pirlo’s beginnings in the game were relatively humble as he represented his hometown club Brescia in Serie B before Inter spotted something in the youngster and took him to the San Siro in 1998.
He was unable to break into the first-team on a regular basis at Inter, but a successful loan spell at Reggina in 1999-2000 provided a tantalizing glimpse of the player he would develop into.
However, it was during a second loan spell, where Pirlo returned to Brescia, when destiny announced itself.
Pirlo had been fielded as a No. 10 behind the strikers up to this point in his short career but with boyhood hero Roberto Baggio occupying that role, manager Carlo Mazzone had to improvise and opted to place his young loan starlet at the base of midfield.
How different the recent history of world soccer could have been without this circumstantial switch – it proved to be nothing short of a masterstroke.
A team which had started the 2000-01 season battling against relegation climbed the Serie A table in double-quick time, inspired by Baggio and Pirlo, finishing in a comfortable seventh place, reaching the Coppa Italia quarterfinals and qualifying for the Intertoto Cup.
Reflecting on their partnership seven years later, Baggio said: “When we played together, everything started with him.
“He always had the great gift of being able to visualize and anticipate plays before everyone else. His vision, what he can do with the ball, and what he’s able to create make him a true superstar – Andrea has something which you don’t see very often.”
As Baggio said, this new position brought the very best out of Pirlo, utilizing his passing range, intelligence and ability to dictate the pace of a game.
It wasn’t long until one of Baggio’s former clubs, AC Milan, came calling and it was here where Pirlo would truly realize his potential and become one of the world’s best players.
The hirsute midfielder would win two UEFA Champions League titles with AC Milan, two Serie A Scudettos, a Coppa Italia, two UEFA Super Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup in a decade-long spell with the Rossoneri.
In 2011, Pirlo finally called time on his stay at the San Siro and Antonio Conte happily snapped him up on a free transfer, taking him to Juventus where he ended The Old Lady’s nine-year wait for a title in his first season.
He won the league every year he spent in Turin, while his former club struggled to replace him and floundered far from the table summit – the two facts were probably not entirely unrelated.
Only three players have won more than Pirlo’s 115 caps for Italy and he has won the biggest prize of them all for the Azzurri.
At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Pirlo was named Man of the Match three times, including in the final against France, when Italy lifted the trophy in Germany, earning him a place in the all-star Team of the Tournament.
He had the most assists in the tournament and was named as one of the competition’s top three best players.
Individual awards have come as regularly to Pirlo as team prizes, although due to his humility, he’s never been one to revel in them for too long.
He was named Serie A’s Player of the Season for three successive seasons between 2012-14 and was named in the UEFA Champions League Team of the Season for the campaign which has just passed.
“Andrea is a silent leader, he speaks with his feet,” as Marcelo Lippi once famous said.
However, Pirlo isn’t just a very good soccer player – it’s not a stretch to say that he’s someone who has transcended the game, becoming a prominent figure in pop culture.
He’s the launcher of a thousand memes, the subject of quotes emblazoned on T-shirts, a skilled wine-maker with an iconic beard and the source of confused feelings for men the world over.
Moreover, Pirlo is an intellectual and a style icon – a subversion of all the things we thought we knew about soccer players.
The 36-year-old’s book, titled “I Think, Therefore I Play” – an apt play on Descartes’ “Cogito ergo sum” – perhaps contains the quote which tells us the most about New York City FC’s third Designated Player.
In his own words: “I don’t feel pressure … I spent the afternoon of Sunday, July 9, 2006 in Berlin sleeping and playing the PlayStation. In the evening, I went out and won the World Cup.”
As the saying goes: “No Pirlo, No Party.”
What happens when that Party arrives in the City that Never Sleeps?
