As Barcelona hoisted their fifth Champions League title in Berlin on Saturday night, many Juventus players were understandably dejected and despondent.
There was however one player who was able to overcome the emotion and recognise the enormity of Barcelona’s treble winning feat.
It was Andrea Pirlo, who was playing in his first Champions League final in eight years. In what may have been his last game for Juventus, Pirlo was able to wipe away the tears and acknowledge what the Spanish giants had managed to achieve, even as his own treble winning aspirations were snatched away from him just moments earlier.
It was the type of sportsmanship that you could only hope to teach your kid, showing humility and respect on one of the biggest stages in world sport. It was a great sign of character from one of football’s greatest characters, and with the possibility of the 36-year-old bowing out of European football, he is left with a tough decision on where he would like to finish out his professional career – New York or Sydney.
Early reports indicate that New York are the favourites to land the Italian star but Sydney FC have been heavily linked with bringing the World Cup winner to the SFS. This is despite Sydney coach Graham Arnold expressing his disinterest in bringing the Italian legend to the Harbour City.
Arnold has made it clear he is looking to bring in an attacker as Sydney’s designated marquee player, as the Sky Blues coach looks to fill the void left by the departing Marc Janko, Bernie Ibini and Corey Gameiro. However, the possibility of bringing Pirlo to the A-League could be bigger than Arnold’s immediate needs, especially given the success of former Italian football stars in the Emerald City.
Sydney FC Chairman Scott Barlow has made it no secret of how proud he was to be able to bring Alessandro Del Piero to Sydney three years ago, labeling the signing of the Italian great as an historic day for Australian football and a major coup for Sydney. But the fact was bringing a 37-year-old Alessandro Del Piero to the A-League was a major gamble.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald’s Andrew Webster, Del Piero earned anywhere between $2.5 million to $4 million per year, making him Australia’s highest-paid sportsman based in Australia.
It was very conceivable that Del Piero could embark on a retirement tour of Australia, as realistically, this was a man who won just about every major trophy in football. He could be forgiven for easing himself into retirement.
Yes Del Piero said all of the right things publicly, mainly his goal of developing the game in Australia, but there’s absolutely no doubt that the money offered by Scott Barlow and owner David Traktovenko played a vital part.
But while some thought that ADP’s mandate of developing the game in Australia was a bit of a smoke and mirrors act, the Italian dynamo very much delivered on his promise.
Sydney’s home attendance rose 57 per cent during Del Piero’s tenure in Moore Park. Sydney also received a massive boost in membership sales due to Del Piero’s arrival – cracking the 10,000 mark for the first time in the club’s history in addition to a dramatic rise in shirt sales as a result of the acclaimed ‘Ale effect’.
Furthermore, the Del Piero effect was just as significant on the road as it was within Sydney, with A-League attendances rising on average 24 per cent in games featuring Del Piero. That’s putting a lot of extra bums on seats and bringing in a lot of new fans to the Australian game that otherwise wouldn’t have been there before.
So with the blueprint already laid out for an Italian legend in Australian football, what are the difficulties in luring Andrea Pirlo to the A-League?
Pirlo still has one year left on his contract with Juventus, so any A-League club pursing the midfield maestro would also have to agree terms with the club, before agreeing terms with Andrea.
Secondly, the other major suitor in the race for Andrea’s signature is New York FC, a two-year-old MLS club who has also managed to sign David Villa and Frank Lampard after some heavy investment from Manchester City and the New York Yankees.
Pirlo also happens to own property in New York so there’s that too, but even in their twilight years, a footballing trio of Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo and David Villa would still be very entertaining and a big draw for a startup team.
Thirdly, the MLS could also be willing to offer Pirlo more money, with the likes of former teammate Ricardo Kaka earning over $7 million per year with the Orlando Pirates. While Sydney owner David Traktovenko helped fund a large part of Del Piero’s salary, would he be willing to pay nearly two to three times as much to bring in Pirlo?
So with all that said, what are the advantages for Sydney?
Sydney would be one of the few clubs in Australia that would have the type of money to be able to bankroll the likes of an Andrea Pirlo to the A-League. Billionaire owner David Traktovenko possesses more than enough funds to lure the Italian, it just depends if he’s willing to spend it.
Secondly, Pirlo may be enticed by the blueprint laid out by former teammate Del Piero, with Pirlo seeing first hand the amount of support for football in Australia during Juventus’ pre-season tour of New South Wales, where the Bianconeri stole a 3-2 win over the A-League All-Stars in front of more than 55,000 people at ANZ Stadium.
Thirdly, agent Lou Sticca is the man who has been charged with enticing the Italian legend to come to Australia with Sticca helping plot the audacious bid to land Del Piero three years ago.
Given the similar career paths of Del Piero and Pirlo, you would imagine Sticca would use the same selling points to Pirlo as he did in luring Del Piero down under.
While New York are the favourites to land Pirlo, a move to Sydney for the Juve midfielder would provide the jolt that the A-League needs to further grow football in Australia and should be something that should be pursued with great vigour, despite Graham Arnold’s best intentions.
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