5. Pirlo on Sir Alex Ferguson
“Even Sir Alex Ferguson, the purple-nosed manager who turned Manchester United into a fearsome battleship, couldn’t resist the temptation. He’s a man without blemish, but he ruined that purity just for a moment when it came to me. A fleeting shabbiness came over the legend that night.”
4. Prilo on Roy Hodgson
“He called me Pirla (a term used in Milan dialect roughly translated as dickhead), perhaps understanding my true nature more than the other managers. We went through four coaches that year (1999). I’d wake up in the morning and not remember who my coach was.”
3. Pirlo on Jerzy Dudek
“To most people’s minds, the reason we lost on penalties was Jerzy Dudek – that jackass of a dancer who took the mickey out of us by swaying about on his line and then rubbed salt into the wound by saving our spot kicks.”
2. Pirlo on Gennaro Gattuso
“You could see the red mist coming down and he just wasn’t able to hide it. We could tell what was coming and so we’d commandeer all the knives. Gattuso would grab a fork and try to stick it in us.”
1. Pirlo on pre-match warm ups
“It’s nothing but masturbation for conditioning coaches.”