Italy legend and now manager of Serie B side Sampdoria Andrea Pirlo led his team to a 2-0 victory on Saturday. The celebrations were quite intense as you can watch as a player shakes Pirlo quite aggressively after coming off.
Pirlo getting shaken by his players pic.twitter.com/oRn08DBSzx
— Theo (@Thogden) December 9, 2023
Assists are often overlooked in favor of their more flashy and prominent neighbor, the goal. In many ways, they require more technique and ability than scoring a goal because finding the goal is easy. Knowing where to place a ball to find a teammate while avoiding defenders and keepers, and actually having the technical ability to do it, requires a soccer mind of the highest order. One of the greats, Andrea Pirlo, famously said, "Football is played with the head. Your feet are just tools."
With nine successive Serie A titles followed by two campaigns where Champions League qualification seemed a shallow silver lining, Juventus’ fall from grace has been clear to see in recent years. This summer has seen several big names depart Turin, and the Bianconeri will be hard-pressed to find adequate replacements in order to once again fight for the Scudetto.
Seven seasons after joining the club, Paulo Dybala has completed his move away from Juventus. He will be playing for AS Roma following months of speculation and near guarantees that he would be moving to Inter Milan. But what happened? How did this beautiful marriage fall apart and crumble so quickly and so catastrophically?
Last month, MLS club LAFC completed the signing of Giorgio Chiellini on a free transfer from Juventus. He's the league's second major Italian signing this summer after Lorenzo Insigne joined Toronto FC on a free transfer.
The soccer world was rocked on Saturday when it was announced that Gareth Bale was leaving Real Madrid on a free transfer to LAFC. The move is undoubtedly one of the biggest MLS signings of all time, but where does it rank on the list?
As Major League Soccer prepares for the 2021 playoffs and an international break approaches, it’s worth looking back at some of the great international stars who have played in the league. David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Carlos Valderrama and Didier Drogba have all been huge names but have one thing in common: they never won a World Cup. Has an MLS player won the World Cup?
Juventus’ 2020-21 season, Andrea Pirlo’s first and only in charge, was a failure by the club’s own lofty standards. Pirlo delivered the Coppa and Supercoppa, but Juve’s nine-year grip on the Scudetto was ended by Inter Milan while Cristiano Ronaldo’s Champions League dream was humiliatingly crushed by Porto in the Round of 16.
The fallout was immense with Pirlo sacked and Ronaldo sold, making the campaign one of Juve’s most dramatic — thankfully, Amazon Prime Video Sport was there filming it all.