Andrea Pirlo was undoubtedly one of the best central midfielders of his generation. He spent almost all of his playing career in his native Italy, aside from a two-year spell at New York City FC. However, things could have been so different.
As he revealed in a recent interview with Radio Serie A (as covered by Football Italia), Pirlo came very close to signing for Real Madrid soon after he helped Italy win the 2006 World Cup.
“The World Cup had just ended and there was all the Calciopoli mess. There was a chance that Milan could play in Serie B and Fabio Capello had moved to Real Madrid. I had spoken to him and the directors and we had an agreement.
“When I arrived for Milan’s pre-season, they told us we would play in Serie A with a point deduction, I wasn’t sure because I had decided to go there [Real Madrid], but coming back to Milanello I met Adriano Galliani and my agent and we agreed to continue the adventure.
“Galliani put the contract on the table and told us to put the figures in there, after a few days, we signed it.”
It wasn’t just Real Madrid that Pirlo could have joined. A few years later, Pep Guardiola also wanted him at Barcelona.
“There was a chance for Milan to sign Ibra and he [Guardiola] asked him if I was available to join him at Barcelona. We spoke for a while in his office, but then Ibra arrived and I stayed [at Milan] too.
“Guardiola told me he’d like to have me there. He knew me because he had played at Brescia even if we hadn’t played together. I was very proud to sit in his office and be called by him even if nothing happened in the end.”
Barcelona already had Xavi Hernandez, Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta at that time, so Pirlo added into that would have been a cheat code. La Liga clubs can count themselves lucky that the deal didn’t come to fruition.
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