10 best excerpts from Andrea Pirlo's 'I Think, Therefore I Play'

#7 ‘If I was a president, I’d never build a team...’

Pirlo has a clear disdain for awards handed out by journalists, the press and fellow players, and it’s easy to see why. The Ballon d’Or has been almost exclusively an award won by forwards and playmakers, and Pirlo’s description of the voting procedure takes up just 3 sentences in chapter 10.

He then proceeds to explain clearly why Paolo Maldini is, in his mind, the greatest footballer of the modern age, and why defences win titles. He also talks about the massive influence Paolo had on his mental makeup, in addition to lambasting the Milan hierarchy for not holding on to him.

The best bit of the chapter, however, is the last paragraph: “If I was a president, I’d never build a team with champions up front and dummies in defense. That’s just deceitful advertising designed to fool the fans.’

You wouldn’t want to debate the greatest ever Italian midfielder’s view on this, would you?