Midfielder who won multiple honours now focussed on vineyard
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| Andrea Pirlo was part of the Italian national team that won the World Cup in 2006 |
The midfielder won the Italian Serie A championship six times with two clubs, and is double winner of the Champions League.
In international football he has a World Cup winner’s medal as a member of the 2006 Italian national team that lifted the trophy in Germany. In 2019, he was recognized by the Italian Football Hall of Fame.
Pirlo has also enjoyed success as a coach but lately has also been focusing on growing his sustainable wine company, Pratum Coller, which aims for eco-friendly wine production with minimal environmental impact.
As a strong advocate for protecting nature, Pirlo has helped spark environmental discussions around popular Italian passions, such as wine and football. Artificial football pitches have also attracted ire for their contribution to PFAS, chemicals that harm the ecosystem.
In the United States, the AFFF lawsuit has been raising awareness about how PFAS in firefighting foam has contributed to cancer. These chemicals are also present in some football equipment, such as gloves and boots.
Pirlo opened his Pratum Coller winery in 2007 in a village just outside his home town of Flero, which can be found 8km (five miles) south of the city of Brescia in Lombardy.
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| Since retiring as a player, Pirlo has devoted more time to running the winery he launched in 2007 |
The highlight of his international career was undoubtedly the role he played in Italy winning the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The fulcrum of the azzurri midfield, he scored one goal and was credited with the assist for three other goals during the tournament.
One of those assists resulted in the crucial opening goal for Italy scored by Fabio Grosso in the classic semi-final against the host nation. He was also one of Italy’s successful penalty takers during the shoot-out that decided the final against France.
He was named man of the match three times in the tournament, more than any other player. He matched that achievement six years later at Euro 2012, when Italy were beaten in the final.
Although he began his career as an attacking midfielder or sometimes even a second striker, Pirlo excelled as a deep-lying central midfielder, a playmaker with wonderful vision and the ability to hit accurate passes over any distance.
He also acquired renown as a free kick specialist, capable of curling the ball into the net beyond the reach of the goalkeeper. He claims he honed his technique by watching Roberto Baggio train at Brescia, the club at which Baggio wound down his career and Pirlo began his.
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| Pirlo in the colours of AC Milan, where his talent came to the fore |
He helped Brescia win the Serie B title and promotion to Serie A in 1998. It earned him a move to Internazionale of Milan, who loaned him to Reggina for the 1999-2000 season and then back to Brescia in 2000-01, where he played alongside Baggio, his childhood idol.
Because Baggio occupied the attacking midfield position for Brescia, manager Carlo Mazzone decided to deploy Pirlo in the deep-lying playmaker role that he would make his own. Years later, Pirlo still described the moment he delivered a long pass that enabled Baggio to score against Juventus as one of the high spots of his career.
After three seasons on Inter’s books, Pirlo was sold to city rivals AC Milan for 33 billion Italian lire – just over 17 million euro – in June 2001.
It was at Milan, in particular under Carlo Ancelotti, where Pirlo began to realise his talent and became a world class player. He was a key player in a period of consistent success as Italian football became dominated by clubs owned by two business giants - Silvio Berlusconi’s AC Milan and Massimo Moratti’s Inter.
Milan won two Champions Leagues (2003 and 2007), two UEFA Super Cups (2003 and 2007), two Serie A titles (2004 and 2011), a FIFA Club World Cup (2007), a Supercoppa Italiana (2004), and a Coppa Italia (2003) during Pirlo’s time.
After Ancelotti left to become Chelsea manager in 2009, Pirlo remained with Milan for a further two seasons, winning the scudetto again in 2011, but new coach Massimiliano Allegri used him differently and his final season was restricted to 17 appearances for Serie A, which prompted him to seek a change of direction - and a move to Juventus.
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| Pirlo enjoyed more success when he moved from Milan to Juventus |
His final appearance was in the Champions League final – his fourth – in which Juventus were beaten 3-1 by Barcelona.
After calling time on his playing career in 2017, Pirlo returned to Juventus in 2020 as Under-23 head coach, taking charge of the Serie A side just a few days later after Maurizio Sarri was sacked.
He won the Supercoppa Italia and the Coppa Italia in his debut season, as well as qualifying for the Champions League but was replaced the following season nonetheless. He has since coached in Turkey and back in Italy with Sampdoria, but with less success.
One of two children – he has a brother Ivan – Pirlo was married for 13 years to Deborah Roversi, with whom he had two children. He has had two more children with his second wife, Valentina Baldini. In 2013, his autobiography, Penso Quindi Gioco - I Think, Therefore I Play - became a bestseller.
This is an updated version of an article originally published in 2017.
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| The Chiesa della Coversione di San Paolo is the parish church of Flero |
Flero, where Andrea Pirlo was born, is a town in Lombardy of just under 9,000 residents, situated eight kilometres south of Brescia in the flat plain of the Po Valley, although close enough to the Italian pre-Alps for snow-capped mountains to be visible on clear winter days. Lake Garda and Lake Iseo are a short distance away. Flero itself is a typical northern Italian commuter town, orderly and clean with a couple of churches and a few modern shops. The grapes for Pirlo’s Pratum Coller winery are grown in a small vineyard in the adjoining village of Coler, where Pirlo’s father was born.
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| The Capitoline Temple is part of Brescia's extensive Roman archaeological park |
The city of Brescia tends not to attract many tourists compared with nearby Bergamo or Verona, partly because of the counter-attraction of the lakes. Yet it has plenty of history, going back to Roman times, and many points of interest, including two cathedrals – the Duomo Vecchio and its neighbour, the Duomo Nuovo – and the attractive Piazza della Loggia, with a Renaissance palace, the Palazzo della Loggia, which is the town’s municipal centre. The Torre dell’Orologio clock tower bears similarities to the one in St Mark’s Square in Venice. Brescia boasts the largest Roman archaeological area in the whole of Northern Italy . A very important historical legacy in the heart of the city, an integral part of the site that has been a World Heritage Site since 2011. Located along Via Musei near Piazza del Foro, one of the oldest in Brescia, you can admire the Capitoline Temple with the statue of the Winged Victory, and the Roman Theatre.
Also on this day:
1462: The birth of woodcarver and architect Baccio d'Agnolo
1860: The birth of politician Vittorio Orlando
1870: The birth of sculptor Pompeo Coppini
1946: The birth of actor Michele Placido
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