Fantasista - Andrea Pirlo

Andrea Pirlo, (born 19 May 1979 in Flero, Lombardy), is an Italian footballer who plays for Serie A club Milan and the Italian national team. Praised for his inventive play, he is also a free-kick specialist.[3]

Pirlo has played for the Italian youth teams U-15, U-18 and U-21, captaining and leading the last to win the 2000 as the Golden Player and Top Scorer of the tournament. He joined the Italian senior side during the qualification round for World Cup 2002 and captained the national team to a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics. Later, he was instrumental in the teams victory in the 2006 World Cup. He was named man of the match three times, including the final, more than any other player in the tournament, and ultimately won the Bronze Ball (3rd best player in tournament).

With Milan, he has won two UEFA Champions League (2003 and 2007), two European Supercups (2003 and 2007), a Scudetto (2004), an Italian Supercup (2004), a FIFA Club World Cup (2007), and the Italian Cup in 2003.

For both club and country Pirlo plays central midfield, as a deep-lying playmaker. He came in 3rd and 2nd in IFFHS World Playmaker of the Year awards in 2006 and 2007, respectively.[4][4] Fellow players on the Italian team gave him the nickname ‘l'architetto’ (the architect) because his long passes frequently set up goal-scoring opportunities for the Azzurri (Italian national team).[5] Recently, when playing for Italy, Pirlo has returned to his old position as a traditional play-maker behind striker(s).

Club career
Pirlo was born in the province of Brescia. His brother Ivan plays for a Serie C2 club in Brescia. Pirlo made his debut for Brescia against Reggina on 21 May 1995, when he was aged only 16 years and two days. After breaking into the Brescia first team, Pirlo was spotted by Internazionale coach, Mircea Lucescu who signed the playmaker. However, Pirlo was unable to break into the first squad and Internazionale finished 8th in the 1998-99 Serie A campaign. Pirlo was shipped off on loan to the club he made his debut against in 1995, Reggina. After an impressive season he returned to Internazionale but was once again unable to break into the first squad making just 4 league appearances and spent the second half of the season on loan at former club, Brescia.

After 3 seasons on the Internazionale books, Pirlo was sold to fierce rivals, Milan for €17.5 million.[6] It was at AC Milan where he found his true strides developing into a world class player. With Milan, he has won one Scudetto and two Champions League titles. He also won an Italian Cup and two UEFA Super Cups with Milan in 2003 and 2007.

Pirlo started his career as an offensive midfielder until coach Carlo Ancelotti developed for him a deep-seated playmaking role at Milan. Since then, he has formed a formidable partnership with Gennaro Gattuso in the midfield and has earned the nickname "the metronome" for the way he sets the team's rhythm.[7] He led Serie A in the 2002-2003 season in four special categories, passes played (2589), ball possession (123 hours played and 39 minutes), successful balls (661) and successful passes (2093). This implies that he averaged almost 90 passes per game. He led Milan in minutes played for the 2006-07 season with 2,782. In October 2007, he was nominated for the 2007 FIFA World Player of the Year Award but it went to Milan teammate Kaká instead. After Kaka and coach Carlo Ancelotti left Milan in the summer of 2009, Chelsea tested Milan's resolve by bidding $12m and Claudio Pizarro for Pirlo. The club rejected the offer and Pirlo was said to be contemplating a transfer request.[citation needed] On 5 August, Berlusconi decided not to sell Pirlo who said he was overjoyed and wanted to end his career at Milan.[8] On 21 October, Pirlo scored a brilliant 30 meter goal in Milan's 3-2 win over Real Madrid.

International career
Pirlo captained Italy to an Under-21 European Championship in 2000 and semi-finalists in 2002. Pirlo played for Italy at the 2000 Summer Olympics, won the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics.

He played at the Euro 2004. He scored 2 goals (Both free kicks) in a 2-0 victory against Scotland.

Pirlo was a member of the Italian Squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In Italy's first match in the tournament, Pirlo scored the opening goal against Ghana, and subsequently set up a goal for Vincenzo Iaquinta to seal the 2-0 victory. He was named the Man of the Match. In the semifinal against Germany, he assisted on the opening goal and was again named Man of the Match. In the final against France, his corner kick produced Marco Materazzi's equalizing header ten minutes after France had opened the score. The match went to a penalty shoot-out, in which he scored. He was named Man of the Match for a third time, and was voted third-best player of the tournament.

Personal life
According to the International Romani Union and the New York Times, Pirlo is one of few European footballers with Romani ancestry

taken from here.