Juventus rehire Allegri as Pirlo let go after one season

Massimiliano Allegri has returned to Juventus after the Turin giants sacked coach Andrea Pirlo following a single season in charge, the deposed Italian champions announced on Friday.

“Welcome back home, Max!” Juventus said in a tweet to announce the reappointment of the coach who won five straight Serie A titles with the club between 2014 and 2019.

Allegri also won including four league and cup doubles, and reached two Champions League finals during his first stint as Juventus coach.

He was fired by the club two years ago.

“Allegri returns to a bench that he knows very well, a club that he loves and that loves him back, to begin today a new journey together, toward new goals,” Juventus said in a statement.

Many fantastic years spent together and now many more still to come! 👊🤍🖤#AllegriIN

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) May 28, 2021

“What he achieved in his first adventure at Juventus are engraved in the club’s history,” the club said.

The 53-year-old Allegri has reportedly signed a three-year deal with the club.

Pirlo ‘didn’t expect’ decision

Pirlo, a former Juventus player who had never coached at any level before taking over, was appointed last year after Maurizio Sarri was fired.

“A few months ago, Andrea Pirlo, an icon of world soccer, began his new adventure, his first as a coach,” Juventus said in a statement.

“To do this, first of all, it takes courage, as well as awareness of one’s own means … Pirlo has just begun the first steps of what will no doubt become a brilliant career as a coach.”

Juventus won the Italian Cup and the Super Cup under Pirlo’s sole season in charge, but the team’s fourth-place finish ended a run of nine straight Serie A titles.

The club also faltered in the Champions League, losing to Porto in the final 16.

Juventus did not say whose decision it was to go, but reports in Italy say the 42-year-old Pirlo was fired.

He appeared surprised at the decision, writing on Instagram that he “reached all the objectives that were asked of me” and that his time at the club had ended “in a way I didn’t expect”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Andrea Pirlo Official (@andreapirlo21)

“My first season as a manager has ended,” Pirlo said on Instagram. “It has been an intense, complicated but in any case wonderful year.

“If I had to go back I would make exactly the same choice.”

Nicknamed “the maestro” as a player for his passing skills, Pirlo helped Italy win the 2006 World Cup and also won Serie A six times – twice with AC Milan and four times with Juventus.

He also won the Champions League twice with Milan.