Alessandro Del Piero believes his old teammate Andrea Pirlo can ‘do even better than Zinedine Zidane’ in his new role as Juventus coach.

While the decision to fire Maurizio Sarri wasn’t entirely surprising after a Champions League Round of 16 exit to Lyon, the choice of replacement certainly was.

Alessandro Del Piero believes his old teammate Andrea Pirlo can ‘do even better than Zinedine Zidane’ in his new role as Juventus coach.

While the decision to fire Maurizio Sarri wasn’t entirely surprising after a Champions League Round of 16 exit to Lyon, the choice of replacement certainly was.

Pirlo has no managerial experience and was only unveiled as the new coach of the Under-23 side, which plays its football in Serie C, last week.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t have bet on him becoming the coach. It’s a surprise for me too,” laughed Del Piero on Sky Sport Italia.

“I was already pleased for him taking the Under-23 role and thought that was the right move for him, but he’s skipped ahead, so I can only wish him luck.

“I think the general perception of former players who become coaches is changing in Italy. Before, there was this need to go through a long process in the lower leagues to learn the trade, but in recent years we’ve seen Filippo and Simone Inzaghi succeed, plus Gennaro Gattuso. They were great players and started straight away with great teams.”

It’s reported Juventus President Andrea Agnelli believes Pirlo can follow in the footsteps of Zidane at Real Madrid, by immediately commanding respect from the stars due to his playing career.

“It’s not a fair comparison, because Zizou had already worked with the Real Madrid youth team and then was Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant manager, but Pirlo has everything it takes to do even better than Zidane,” noted Del Piero.

“He already knows the club, the players, the directors, so I think they communicated in a very clear way.”

Zidane won three consecutive Champions League trophies on the Real Madrid bench.

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