Juventus appoint club legend Andrea Pirlo as next manager

The Bianconeri have replaced Maurizio Sarri with Pirlo.

andrea pirlo - juventus new manager

Juventus have appointed  Andrea Pirlo as the next manager in a two-year deal after dismissing Maurizio Sarri. The club made the announcement – sacking of Sarri – following the shock defeat against Lyon in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League. The former Napoli coach was appointed as the manager in the charge last month after Juve got rid of Massimiliano Allegri. However, in his first season, Sarri led his side to the Scudetto alone, that too in an unconvincing way. Besides the Champions League debacle, the Bianconeri also ended up short in the Copa Italia race, losing to Napoli in the finals.

While Juve were said to be looking for the likes of Mauricio Pochettino, Antonio Conte, Pirlo ended up as the new manager. The former AC Milan star joined Juve’s reserved as the new head coach last week before he was caught by surprise by the board – becoming the manager of the senior team.

Following his appointment, his ex team-mates greeted him for the new endeavour, and some did it in a peculiar fashion. Inter Milan manager Conte, also the former coach of Pirlo during his time at Turin, has said that the announcement of Pirlo had made him think he was getting old. Pirlo’s former AC Milan team-mate Genarro Gatusso also came up with a strange welcome message, stating that Pirlo has been screwed now.

Juve legend Alessandro Del Piero said that Pirlo could become a better coach than Zinedine Zidane.

Del Piero said:

“It’s not a fair comparison, because Zizou had already worked with the Real Madrid youth team and then was Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant manager, but Pirlo has everything it takes to do even better than Zidane’

“He already knows the club, the players, the directors, so I think they communicated in a very clear way.”

“To be honest, I wouldn’t have bet on him becoming the coach. It’s a surprise for me too.”

“I was already pleased for him taking the Under-23 role and thought that was the right move for him, but he’s skipped ahead, so I can only wish him luck.

Pirlo appears to be delighted on becoming the new manager of his former club, and he took to twitter to share his comments.

The message read as:

“I’m deeply pleased and honoured to receive such respect and trust from Juventus.

“Ready for this amazing opportunity!”

It remains to be seen how far the 42-year-old can go next season given that he has little or no experience at the elite level. 

Juventus had seen two managerial changes in the two successive years; Will Pirlo be able to stop the bad streak?

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