How Much Longer Does Juventus' Andrea Pirlo Have at the Top of the Game?

Andrea Pirlo. The mere mention of his name evokes thoughts of effortless style, a superb beard and a stranded Joe Hart watching helplessly as a wonderful chipped penalty sails over his head and into the back of the net.

The Juventus midfielder has—along with Barcelona legend Xavi—spent more than a decade being viewed as one of European football’s greatest midfielders. Like the Spanish star, Pirlo offers a calm reassurance in the centre of the pitch, playing with the same cool air that defines him off the field even in the most high-profile matches.

“If you give the ball to Andrea,” current team-mate Leonardo Bonucci told a recent press conference, “it’s like putting it in a safe.” Hinting at the way Pirlo controls games and so rarely gives away possession, the defender’s comments show the reverence in which the 36-year-old is still held despite fears he may be set to leave the Bianconeri.

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He has been linked with a switch to MLS side New York City FC (h/t Sky Sports), with many believing his emotional display as the Italian giants lost the Champions League final to Barcelona earlier this month was a sign he was on the move.

Pirlo himself moved to downplay that talk, telling Sky Italia that his tears “were for the defeat,” (h/t Guardian Sport), adding that “it is the kind of opportunity that I will rarely get again.” Discussions over his future are likely to continue all summer, with many wondering just how long the 2006 World Cup winner has left at the highest level.

The first rebuttal to that is that Pirlo has always played the game at his own pace, often looking like something of a throwback in the midst of the modern-day midfield battle. While younger men like Paul Pogba and Geoffrey Kondogbia are able to run endlessly, the former Milan man rarely appears to move above walking pace.

Yet that belies the speed at which his brain is working, able to put himself in the correct position early as he reads the game wonderfully. Indeed, looking at Juve’s 2-1 Champions League semi-final win over Real Madrid, the image above shows that only Arturo Vidal covered more distance than Pirlo over the 90 minutes.

Any thought that his powers have begun to wane is not reflected statistically, with figures from WhoScored.com showing his output actually improved in 2014/15. Pirlo made an average of 72.7 passes, connecting with 89.2 percent of them, an increase on 69 attempts and 88.5 percent 12 months earlier.

The same source also highlights a greater defensive contribution, Pirlo making an average of 1.6 tackles and 1.5 interceptions per game, up from 1.4 and 1.3 respectively in 2013/14.

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However, a counter-argument would be that Juventus have occasionally looked sharper without him in the side, this review of the win over Borussia Dortmund noting that there was “a different dimension to the Juve attack that would have been absent had Pirlo started the game.”

As teams look to press the aging star with increasing regularity, those matches may start to increase, with Massimiliano Allegri’s shift to a four-man defence removing some of the security behind him that the 3-5-2 afforded. That can leave the Bianconeri in trouble when Pirlo is caught in possession, but club captain Gigi Buffon believes opponents can be made to look foolish when they attempt to play that way.

“Pirlo is one of the real football geniuses,” the goalkeeper said recently (h/t Football Italia). “It’s entertaining to watch teams plan to stop him and in a second he just destroys their plan with brilliance.”

Juventus will hope that he turns down the chance to move to the United States, as it seems Andrea Pirlo has at least another year left at the top of the game.