Andrea Pirlo has everything to become better manager than Zinedine Zidane, claims Alessandro Del Piero
Alessandro Del Piero believes Andrea Pirlo can be a better manager than Zinedine Zidane
|Juventus legend and World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero has confessed that newly-appointed Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo has it in his locker to become a better manager than Zinedine Zidane. The 41-year-old replaces former Old Lady manager Maurizio Sarri in a move that has many shell-shocked.
After a stunning exit at the hands of Olympique Lyon from the Champions League, Juventus reacted as such and made the decision to sack Maurizio Sarri as their manager. However, while Andrea Agnelli, Juventus’ chairman, asserted that the move had been in the works for quite some time, the club replaced the former Napoli and Chelsea boss with Andrea Pirlo on a two-year deal. The 41-year-old was appointed as the club’s U23 coach last month but is now the first team’s manager without taking charge of a single game for the Serie C side.
Yet while the move has shocked fans and critics, similarities have popped up between Pirlo and Zinedine Zidane as many believe that the Italian can replicate what the Frenchman has done. That has, however, been echoed by Alessandro Del Piero but the Italian legend admitted that while Pirlo doesn’t have the experience that Zidane had when he took over, he has enough to thrive. He also added that the move came as a shock to him as well but Del Piero believes his former teammate can do a good job.
“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,” Del Piero told Sky Sport.
"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. I think the general perception of former players who become coaches is changing in Italy. Before, there was this need to go through a long process in the lower leagues to learn the trade, but in recent years we’ve seen Filippo and Simone Inzaghi succeed, plus Gennaro Gattuso. They were great players and started straight away with great teams.”
