Juventus President Andrea Agnelli says the club will ‘always be home’ for the departing Andrea Pirlo.
It was confirmed earlier today that the Italian international has signed for New York City in MLS, and the patron spoke briefly about his departure at a Press conference to announce Claudio Marchisio’s renewal.
Juventus President Andrea Agnelli says the club will ‘always be home’ for the departing Andrea Pirlo.
It was confirmed earlier today that the Italian international has signed for New York City in MLS, and the patron spoke briefly about his departure at a Press conference to announce Claudio Marchisio’s renewal.
“I have enormous affection for Pirlo as both a man and a player,” Agnelli told the assembled media.
“It was an unforgettable four years, and he knows that here in Turin, Juventus will always be home for him. We wish him all the best in his new adventure in America.”
Agnelli also took time to praise director general Giuseppe Marotta and sporting director Fabio Paratici for their work in revitalising the squad.
“Marotta and Paratici have played an extremely important role in rejuvenating the team, and there are a lot of youngsters who have been included in the past and will be in the forthcoming campaign.
“I’m thinking of the likes of [Paulo] Dybala, [Alvaro] Morata, [Daniele] Rugani and [Roberto] Pereyra.
“We’ve really rejuvenated the team, and for that we have to give a big round of applause to the Directors, to Fabio, to Pavel [Nedved] and to [Coach Max] Allegri at the same time, because we’ve built Juventus to play in 2015/16, with an eye on the medium-to-long term, with a number of youngsters with great quality and enormous potential.
“This gives us hope for the sporting side of things in the coming years.
“We know perfectly well that every year we start from scratch. We have zero points in the League, and we don’t know who our Champions League opponents will be, and anyway, everyone in the group starts from zero points.
“That’s the awareness we have this year. We haven’t won four Scudetti, they’re in the past now, as are the Super Coppe, the Coppa Italia, the Champions League and the Europa League semi-final, we know we have to start from scratch.
“If we want to build something new next season, which will take us to where Juventus should be, we know we have to work on the pitch and off it, we’ll have to work hard to get to the end of the season and have something to celebrate.”