Andrea Pirlo

Italy faced England in the quarter finals, and Pirlo was on fine form, spraying sublime 40-yard passes with ease. Pirlo dictated the play, and to make matters worse for England, the Italian scored in the penalty shoot-out with an audacious chipped penalty. Pirlo made 131 passes against England, only Xavi (136 vs Ireland) made more in a single game at Euro 2012. Pirlo put in another fine performance against Germany in the semi-final. Unfortunately for Italy, Spain proved to be too good and won con-vincingly in the final. Andrea Pirlo won three Man of the Match awards for Euro 2012, equalled only by Andres Iniesta of Spain, and cemented his place in the Team of the Tournament. During the entire tournament, Pirlo was incredibly comfortable with the ball and bossed almost every midfield battle. It's en-couraging to see that at the age of 33, the top players still stand out and shine. Fur-thermore, it shows that pace isn't everything in the game - ability always comes through.

Age:Appearences:Goals:Club:

3389

10Juventus

Eyebrows were certainly raised when Pirlo and AC Milan agreed that his career at the club was over. As a free agent, Andrea moved to Juventus, and the rest was history. After his impressive season with Juventus (and getting named in the Serie A 'Team of The Year), Italy manager Prandelli included PirloPirlo in the Euro 2012 team. He provided an impressive assist for Di Natale during Italy's opening match against Spain, before scoring a curling free kick to put Italy in the lead against Croatia. Pirlo then provided another assist from a corner in their win over Ireland. Italy were runners-up of Group C, withwith Pirlo having a major influence in all three matches.

“It's encouraging to see that at the age of 33, the top players still stand out and shine.”

midfielder