How Andrea Barzagli became the 'best signing Juventus ever made'

Of all the injustices that the 1980s inflicted, perhaps the worst was reserved for Andrew Ridgeley. He was in one of the world’s most successful bands but, beneath the shoulder pads and hairspray, the Wham star faced an inescapable reality: no matter how bouffant his hair or how skilfully he slapped the guitar strung around his waist, the plaudits were always going to go to another man.

As Andrea Barzagli takes to the pitch at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday night, he will know Ridgeley felt. The Juventus defender has made a habit of eluding the plaudits throughout his startlingly consistent career and the Champions League final will be no different. He will be in the shadows as Giorgio Chiellini, Leanardo Bonucci and Gianluigi Buffon reap praise from the adoring crowds.

Barzagli turned 36 last month and, even though he says he will “play for as long as I feel good”, this may be his last chance to win a European glory. He was born in the scenic Tuscan town of Fiesole on 8 May 1981. After impressing local scouts with his amateur displays, he moved to Ascoli in 2001 and helped them gain promotion to Serie B in his first full season. Barzagli truly made his name at Palermo under the management of Francesco Guidolin. He joined the club before the 2004-05 season as the club prepared for their first campaign in the top flight since the early 1970s. By the end of the season they had qualifier for the Uefa Cup.

Barzagli was made Palermo captain in 2007 but, as his game matured, a move to a bigger club was inevitable. Fiorentina wanted to bring him back to Tuscany but Wolfsburg blew them out of the water with an offer of €10m. Barzagli was off to the banks of the Aller River to link up with Felix Magath for what promised to be a historic year for Die Wolfe.

The Auswanderer statue in Wolfsburg was built by Italian-born sculptor Quinto Provenziani to honour migrants who have travelled beyond their own borders to find work. Thousands made the journey from Italy’s impoverished south and Wolfsburg still boasts one of the highest Italian migrant populations in Germany. Barzagli, it seemed, was just the latest worker coming to do a job.

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And what a job he did. He was on the pitch for every minute of the 2008-09 season as Wolfsburg won the first – and so far only – title in their history. Edin Dzeko and Grafite scored 54 goals between them that season and are rightly given much of the praise for Wolfsburg’s famous triumph. Less is mentioned about Barzagli’s pristine record at the heart of the defence, but he was solid every week.

Wolfsburg slipped to eighth in Barzagli’s second season and, with the club hovering above the relegation places midway through his third season in Germany, he was on his way out. Juventus were in crisis at the time. Didier Deschamps had sifted through the wreckage of Calciopoli scandal and taken the club back to Serie A but, after a few seasons of consolidation under Claudio Ranieri and Alberto Zaccheroni, the decision to hire Luigi Delneri for the 2010-11 season had backfired spectacularly. They finished the season in seventh, not even qualifying for a place in Europe, but there was one bright spot: on 26 January 2011 they signed the 29-year-old Barzagli for a scarcely believable £300,000. Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli later reflected that it was “the best signing we ever made”.

Antonio Conte replaced Delneri that summer and breathed fire into a melancholic dressing room as shirkers were jettisoned and strivers were championed. Juventus, aided by the inspired transfer dealings of general manager Beppe Marotta, were about to go on an unprecedented run of six straight titles. They kicked things off with an unbeaten season in 2011-12 as they set a new record for clean sheets in Serie A and ushered in an era of dominance.

At the heart of the Juventus defence stood a bargain basement centre-back. Conte had toyed with a four-man defence but his side truly clicked when he settled on the now-ubiquitous back three. Bonucci, Chiellini and Barzagli made the team suitably impregnable, Italy’s own “BBC” entertaining audiences in sharpened monochrome. Any striker lucky enough to find a way past them would be confronted with the not-insignificant prospect of Buffon in goal.

It’s easy to explain why Barzagli’s brilliance often goes unnoticed. He is conspicuously absent on social media and eschews the kind of demonstrativeness popular with some of his team-mates. His is a special strain of brilliance, a mastery of the defensive art that transcends statistical ratings. He may lack the grizzle and violence of Chiellini, but only because he doesn’t need it, his astute positioning rendering the last-minute tackle obsolete. As Chiellini puts it: “Andrea is our professor. He’s always in the right place at the right moment.”

Barzagli is not as refined as Bonucci, but the younger man looks comforted when paired with his more experienced team-mate. “I’ve played with many champions and I try to steal secrets from everybody,” says Bonucci. “But the player I like watching on the pitch the most is Barzagli. He’s unbeatable in one-on-ones, he’s impressive in training and he always gives 100%. Andrea is an example for everyone.”

It hasn’t always been an easy ride for Barzagli at Juventus. After being sidelined for most of the 2014-15 season with a knee injury, his time at the club was said to be coming to an end. But he dispelled any doubts about his age and condition when he made his return in spring 2015. It was like he had never been away.

Barzagli won the first of his 66 Italy caps back in 2004 but the Azzurri have been slow to appreciate his talents. His displays for Palermo earned him a place in the squad that won the World Cup in 2006. He came on as a substitute in the last-16 match against Australia and started the quarter-final against Ukraine – Italy didn’t concede a goal in either game – but he spent most of the tournament watching from the stands as Fabio Cannavaro and Marco Materazzi led the team from the back.

He was omitted from Marcello Lippi’s squad for the 2010 World Cup, but then returned for the Euro 2012 campaign, when Italy beat England and the Republic of Ireland on their way to the final. Things changed for Barzagli when Conte took over the national team in 2014 and adopted the tactics that had served him so well at Juventus. He started all of Italy’s games at Euro 2016, marking Nolito and Álvaro Morata out of the game as Italy beat Spain in the last-16.

Barzagli will be making his 43rd appearance of the season when Juventus try to complete the treble in Cardiff. He has helped the club beat Barcelona and Monaco en route to the Champions League final; he started alongside Bonucci and Chiellini in the Coppa Italia final; and he played 90 minutes last Saturday as Juventus wrapped up the Scudetto at Bologna. But Barzagli is coming towards the end. He has been less involved this season, a shoulder injury limiting the number of games he has started, and he can only withstand the challenges of Mehdi Benatia and Daniele Rugani for so long.

Two years ago, Juventus went into the Champions League final knowing they were the underdogs. It felt as if the moment had come too soon. This time round though, Barzagli and his team-mates are ready. Miralem Pjanic, Gonzalo Higuaín, Paulo Dybala and Dani Alves look like the missing pieces of the puzzle. Speaking to the media before the game, Barzagli chose his words with the simple resolve that has characterised his career: “We will play the game and then we will see.”