Pirlo becomes Juventus coach: "So do I have to call you Mister now!?!?!"

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Andrea Pirlo and Gianluigi Buffon 2013 for the Italian national team: "Good luck with this new challenge, Andrea!"

Andrea Pirlo becomes Juventus' new coach without any coaching experience. The 41-year-old signed a contract on Saturday as the successor to Maurizio Sarri for two years until 2022. After the club's official confirmation on Saturday, the initial reactions were accordingly surprised.

"Pirlo has extraordinary intellectual abilities," said his 2006 world champion teammate, Alessandro Del Piero , at Sky. "Andrea knows the environment, the players and the club. That is of course a big surprise, but he will achieve great things."

Turin football boss Fabio Paratici has high hopes. "The boy was one of us, played for us and has always stayed in contact with us. We also remember that he can be a chosen one, just like he was as a footballer," he said.

Pirlo is world champion, Champions League winner and multiple Italian champion. From 2011 to 2015 he played at Juventus. In 2017 he retired from New York City FC. It wasn't until the end of July that Juventus took him under contract as a U23 coach - a good week later he was promoted to head coach of the professionals around superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

"Do I have to call you Mister now!?!?!", Asked goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon on Instagram: "Good luck with this new challenge, Andrea!" The two had played together for years in the club and in the national team. Buffon is a year older than Pirlo but still has a professional contract until 2021.

Former international Alessandro Costacurta , who won the Champions League twice with AC Milan together with Pirlo, wishes the former midfield director a connection to the new generation of players. "This choice is a risk, there is no doubt about it, both for Andrea and Juve. But it's a nice bet. I didn't expect it, maybe neither did he."

The "Gazzetta dello Sport" meanwhile wrote: "Juve is daring a revolutionary step that is very un-Italian, possibly Spanish." The newspaper alluded to Real Madrid's commitment to Zinédine Zidane as coach. The Frenchman worked as an assistant coach for the professionals and coach of the second team, rather he was promoted to head coach of the royal team in 2016 without much experience. He then won the Champions League three times with Real.

ptz / dpa / sid