Andrea Pirlo

Andrea Pirlo
Personal information
Date of birth	May 19, 1979 (age 30)
Place of birth	Flero, Italy
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 91⁄2 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Milan
Number	21
Youth career
	Brescia
Senior career1
National team3
Competitor for Italy
Men's Football
	1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 31 May 2009.; 2 Appearances (Goals).; 3 National team caps and goals correct as of 21 June 2009

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Andrea Pirlo, Cavaliere Ufficiale OMRI^[1]^[2] (born 19 May 1979 in Flero, Lombardy), is an Italian footballer with Sinti origins,^[3]^[4] who currently plays for Italian Serie A club Milan and the Italian national team. Pirlo is a winner of both the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA World Cup.

[edit] 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. 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, A.C. Milan. It was at AC Milan where he found his true strides developing into a world class player. With AC 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. 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.

[edit] International career

Pirlo played for Italy at the 2000 Summer Olympics, won the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics, played at the Euro 2004, and won the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Pirlo captained Italy to an Under-21 European Championship in 2000. At Milan he helped them win the 2003 UEFA Champions League Final but was a runner up two years later as he missed his penalty in the shootout against Liverpool.

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". Throughout the tournament, he and fellow AC Milan teammate Gennaro Gattuso had a formidable partnership which formed the heart of the Italian midfield.

Pirlo played brilliantly throughout the semifinal against Germany, and he ultimately fashioned a key play at the very end of extra time to give Italy a dramatic victory. At the 119th minute, Pirlo received a ball deflected just outside the German penalty area and kept possession for just enough time to provide a defence splitting assist to Fabio Grosso, who scored the opening goal. Moments later, Alessandro Del Piero scored again, Italy won 2-0, and Pirlo was named Man of the Match once again.

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. His performance during the match resulted in his being named the FIFA Man of the Match for a third time, more than any other player over the course of the tournament. He was voted the third best player of the tournament behind Zinedine Zidane and fellow Italian Fabio Cannavaro.

During UEFA Euro 2008, Pirlo scored from penalty to condemn old rivals France to a 2-0 defeat. However, he and Gattuso were suspended for the quarterfinal match against Spain due to accumulated yellow cards. Italy lost the penalty shoot-out 2-4.

With the return of Marcello Lippi, Pirlo has remained a regular in the midfield and was named in the Italian squad for the upcoming 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.

[edit] Club statistics

[edit] Club

Updated to games played June 16, 2009.^[5]

Team	Season	Domestic League		Domestic Cup		European Competition¹		Other Tournaments²		Total
Team	Season	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Brescia	1994-95	1	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	0
	1995-96	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0
	1996-97	17	2	1	0	-	-	-	-	18	2
	1997-98	29	4	1	0	-	-	-	-	30	4
	Total	47	6	2	0	-	-	-	-	49	6
Internazionale	1998-99	18	0	5	0	7	0	-	-	30	0
	2000-01	4	0	1	0	3	0	-	-	8	0
	Total	22	0	6	0	10	0	-	-	38	0
Reggina (loan)	1999-00	29	6	2	0	-	-	-	-	31	6
Reggina (loan)	Total	29	6	2	0	-	-	-	-	31	6
Brescia (loan)	2001	10	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	10	0
Brescia (loan)	Total	10	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	10	0
Milan	2001-02	18	2	2	0	9	0	-	-	29	2
	2002-03	27	9	2	0	13	0	-	-	42	9
	2003-04	32	6	-	-	10	1	2	1	44	8
	2004-05	30	4	1	0	12	1	-	-	43	8
	2005-06	33	4	4	0	12	1	-	-	49	5
	2006-07	34	2	4	0	14	1	-	-	52	3
	2007-08	33	3	1	0	9	2	2	0	45	5
	2008-09	26	1	-	-	3	1	-	-	24	2
	Total	233	31	14	0	82	7	4	1	328	39
Career Total		339	43	24	0	92	7	4	1	456	51

¹European competitions include the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, and UEFA Super Cup
²Other tournaments include the Supercoppa Italiana, Intercontinental Cup and FIFA Club World Cup

[edit] International goals

Updated to games played March 28, 2009.^[6]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	May 30, 2004	Radès, Tunisia	Tunisia	4–0	Win	Friendly
2.	March 26, 2005	Milan, Italy	Scotland	2–0	Win	FIFA World Cup 2006 Qualification
3.	March 26, 2005	Milan, Italy	Scotland	2–0	Win	FIFA World Cup 2006 Qualification
4.	August 17, 2005	Dublin, Ireland	Republic of Ireland	2–1	Win	Friendly
5.	June 12, 2006	Hanover, Germany	Ghana	2–0	Win	FIFA World Cup 2006
6.	October 13, 2007	Genoa, Italy	Georgia	2–0	Win	UEFA Euro 2008 Qualification
7.	June 17, 2008	Zurich, Switzerland	France	2–0	Win	UEFA Euro 2008
8.	March 28, 2009	Podgorica, Montenegro	Montenegro	2–0	Win	FIFA World Cup 2010 Qualification