Former Italian star Andrea Pirlo looks forward to fulfilling new dreams in Istanbul

Former Italian football star Andrea Pirlo is looking forward to fulfilling his dreams in Turkey, with the start of a training journey with the humble Turkish club Fatih Karagomruk on the banks of the Bosphorus.

When he was presented at the Istanbuli Hotel in mid-June, the former midfield maestro said, "I will try to transfer my footballing knowledge (to Turkey) and I hope it will be a successful season."

Hardly had Pirlo received his training certificate, until in August 2020 he took over the duties of coaching one of the most prestigious clubs in the world: Juventus.

But in his first season, he was satisfied with fourth place with the "old lady", to advance a technical staff and a squad that stopped a series of nine consecutive titles in the local league and bid farewell to the round of 16 in the Champions League.

Juventus sacked him in May 2021 despite winning the cup, and he will resume his career on Sunday when his team, the eighth in the Turkish “Super League” last season, hosts Alanyaspor in the opening of local competitions.

His first test will be against a team supervised by his compatriot Francesco Farioli, who coached Fatih Karagomruk last year.

In the popular Karagomeruk neighborhood on the European side of the Bosphorus, the club's stronghold in the historic peninsula of Istanbul, fan Tariq Odman is optimistic about the surprise arrival of a former world champion who gained the nickname "Baspakan" (Prime Minister) in Turkey, given his tremendous ability to control the ball.

The 60-year-old fan, who has supported the red and black team since his childhood, drinks tea in the club's cafe, told AFP: "Not every good player has to become a good coach. But coming here is great. If one of the three big clubs (Galatasaray, Fenerbahce) brought him in. Or Besiktas), the newspapers will only talk about that.”

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Fatih Karagomruk was promoted to the first division in Turkey in 2020, after an absence of 26 years, a club that struggles to bring fans to the stands, unlike Juventus, where Pirlo emerged as a player, after a successful career also with Milan, during which he won the Champions League twice.

His historic stadium, which is a green rectangle with three small stands located between a group of colored buildings, was not approved by the League, forcing him to be exiled to the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, 20 kilometers from his fans.

A stadium that Pirlo tasted twice with Milan, when he lost a legendary final in the Champions League in 2005 against Liverpool, wasting his 3-0 lead in the first half.

"The fact that we don't have our own stadium, our training center, nor even a bus in our name, made negotiations difficult," club vice-president Serkan Hurma admitted during a conference introducing Pirlo, the 2006 world champion with his country.

Four days before the start of the league, the club's president, Suleiman Hurma, threatened to resign if the Turkish authorities did not allow his club to build a stadium and training center worthy of a high level.

"It is sad and humiliating for our club that we find ourselves daily with an uncertain training schedule," he said in a statement.

Turkish sports journalist Alp Ulugai sees the Italian's arrival in Turkey as a "renewed opportunity" for the career of Pirlo, 43, who won the Italian league title six times and concluded his career in 2017 with New York City FC.

But he is skeptical of Fatih Karagomrock's options and considers it a "facade club".

"Fatih Karagomrock is a synthetic club," he explains. "The facade is financed by the club's president and looks good with the addition of Andrea Pirlo, but behind it (the facade) there is nothing."

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