7 Great Footballers who never played in the Premier League

Modified Sep 23, 2018 19:33 GMT

Juventus v FC Barcelona - UEFA Champions League Final — Andrea Pirlo never featured in the premier league

#5 Andrea Pirlo

Juventus FC v AC Milan - Serie A — Pirlo would have lit up the Premier League

Andrea Pirlo is one of the greatest deep-lying playmakers in the history of the game. He was a part of the Italian Team that lifted the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was the man of the match of the final Match against France and was the top assist provider of the tournament.

He started his professional career at Brescia and won the Serie B there. He next moved to Internazionale, however, since he was unable to break into the team, he was loaned back to Brescia, and it was here that he was first deployed in the deep-lying playmaker role. Ahead of the 2001/02 season, Pirlo joined AC Milan and became one of the greatest deep-lying playmakers of the world. He spent 10 seasons there, winning the Serie A title twice, two UEFA Champions Leagues, two UEFA Super Cups, FIFA Club World Club, Supercoppa Italiana, and the Coppa Italia.

In the summer of 2011, Pirlo joined Juventus on a free transfer and won the Serie A title in each of his 4 seasons at Turin. He also won the Coppa Italia and two Supercoppa Italiana and was a huge hit with the Old Lady. After the end of his contract with Juventus, Pirlo joined MLS side New York City and at the end of the 2017 season, Pirlo retired from Football.

In 2014, Pirlo revealed that he had almost followed his mentor Carlo Ancelotti to Chelsea in 2009, but in the end decided to stay at Milan. Had the Architect made the move to Stamford Bridge, he certainly would have lit up the Premier League.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 8500 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by Victor R. Lopez M.