With our apologies to all Celtic fans, we felt we had to feature the magnificent Andrea Pirlo and his magisterial beard as Hero of the Week.
Even the most ardent Celtic fans would have to admit that Pirlo is the touch of class that undid them in the Champions League, so we’ve decided to feature the great man and his imperious beard this week.
Pirlo began his footballing career at Brescia, where he began to make an impression in the youth teams immediately. At just 16, he moved into the first team, and was spotted by scouts from Internazionale, who snapped him up for the Milan club.
He never made a full impact at the nerazzurri however, and moved to their arch rivals at AC Milan, where he imposed himself and became one of the club’s most important players.
He gained the nickname ‘the metronome’, since he was the heart and rhythm of the team, dictating play from deep, picking out passes and scoring brilliant goals both from open play and from set pieces.
His trophy cabinet is laden with medals from AC Milan, winning two Serie A titles, two Champions Leagues titles, and a Coppa Italia in a particularly competitive era for Italian football.
He also cemented a place in the Italian team during this time, and was a key player in the team’s 2006 World Cup win, which came after the huge Calciopoli scandal which had rocked Italian football.
When his time at Milan came to an end however, through a mutual decision not to renew his contract, it seemed that his career could be on the slide, but he joined Juventus and showed that he was still as important as ever both to his national team and his club side, as he also began growing what can only be described as the best beard in football. In this case, we’re classifying Xabi Alonso’s facial hair as stubble, so don’t worry about that lads.
Pirlo led Juventus to an unbelievable undefeated season in Serie A as they claimed another title, having been relegated to Serie B just a few years earlier.
He also was the key man for Italy in Euro 2012 as they made their way to the final to face Spain, which included scoring this beauty of a penalty against England. Calmness personified.
In the final, however, he was well marshalled by the Spanish team and was unable to make as big an impact in this game, which saw Italy finish as runners-up.
This season, Juventus have been making a serious case for their Champions League pedigree, and sitting atop Serie A again, they have been unstoppable even for a Celtic team who showed their ability in defeating Barcelona during the group stages.
In case – despite his scintillating form to date – some might have thought he’d gone off the boil he hit this stunning pass over the top of Celtic’s defence last night to put the gloss on a scoreline which failed to show how much Celtic had put into the game.
It’s the type of pass that would have us throwing our controllers against the wall if it were to happen to us in FIFA, but in real life you can merely sit back and behold its inherent beauty.
This week, Andrea also gave us a tour of his vineyard, so we know what he’s going to be doing when he eventually retires from the game, which will be a sad, sad day. We also know what we’ll be drinking, once we can get our hands on a bottle of Castello di Pirlo.
If you want to be a hero too, like the magnificent Andrea Pirlo, then log on to lynxapollo.com to see how you can become the first Irishman to head into space.
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