Former Juventus star Andrea Pirlo made an appearance at the Trento Sports Festival where he discussed his managerial spell at the club.
The 2006 World Cup winner ended a 10-year collaboration at Milan to join the Bianconeri in 2011.
Il Maestro played an integral part in reviving the club. He spent four years as a player at the Allianz Stadium, winning as many Scudetto titles.
After ending his playing career, the Italian returned to Juventus in the summer of 2020 to coach the club’s U23 side.
Nevertheless, Maurizio Sarri’s sacking earned Pirlo a swift promotion, so he became the senior team manager in what was his first coaching experience.
His tenure saw the end of Juve’s nine-year dynasty. Securing a fourth-place finish and winning the Coppa Italia and the Italian Super Cup wasn’t enough to salvage his spell, as the management opted to replace him with the returning Max Allegri.
Nevertheless, Pirlo believes his team would have improved had Juventus allowed him to work for an additional season.
“I think we would have improved in the following season but I wasn’t disappointed,” said the legendary midfielder as published by JuventusNews24.
“I moved on in my managerial career, perhaps that experience as Juve coach gave me a different label.
“I had a wonderful relationship with the squad and it was a great satisfaction to see the young players develop, like Chiesa, Kulusevski, De Ligt, Fagioli and Frabotta.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is an exemplary professional with everyone. He’s always cheerful and smiling.”
Pirlo is currently managing Sampdoria in Serie B. He’s enduring a rough start to the season but the management has thus far decided to keep faith in his work.
“…the management opted to replace him with the returning Max Allegri.”
It was a very bad decision.