New York City FC midfielder Andrea Pirlo wishes he had played under Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola when the Spaniard was coach of Barcelona and also regrets never having signed for Real Madrid.
Guardiola had wanted to sign Pirlo for Barca from AC Milan in the summer of 2010 but the Serie A club did not want to sell their playmaker.
"Pep as a coach? He's No. 1, without a doubt," Pirlo said in an interview with Marca Plus. "Look at what he did with Barcelona and also Bayern Munich. Above all, he's a person I've had the pleasure of knowing, I admire and respect. We speak quite often now, because we have mutual friends in Brescia."
As a player and after leaving Barcelona in the summer of 2001, Guardiola signed for Serie A side Brescia as Pirlo's replacement. Pirlo was sold to Milan after spending the 2000-01 season on loan at Brescia from Inter Milan.
Pirlo, a World Cup winner with Italy in 2006, said he was honoured when Guardiola made the move to sign him six years ago while he was still a Milan player.
"How did I feel when he wanted to sign me? How could you not want to go there?" he said. "We were facing the best team in the world [in a preseason friendly at the Camp Nou] and he told me he wanted me in the team. He met me in his office after the game, we spoke for a long time."
Had Milan accepted Barca's bid for Pirlo, the 37-year-old would have had the chance to team up with Lionel Messi.
"Messi is the best player in the world, he is amazing," Pirlo, who has played for NYCFC for the past two seasons, said. "Everything he's done so far is unrepeatable."
Pirlo also told Marca Plus that he regrets never having played for Madrid.
Pirlo was a Madrid target in 2006 when Fabio Capello was their coach and a time when Milan received a points deduction after being implicated in the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal.
"Real Madrid? Any player would like to play for them," Pirlo said. "Fabio Capello was there and there were a lot of rumours circulating about Milan's future because of the scandal.
"Milan wouldn't let me go, and they gave me a new contract. Was I disappointed? Well it's true that unfortunately they wouldn't let me leave, but at the same time I spent 10 years at Milan, winning everything there was to win.
"I still have a thorn in my side at not having played for Real Madrid or Barcelona, because playing there is a dream for every player. But I consider myself very satisfied to have played for the best teams in Italy."