Pirlo: I was close to joining Chelsea

London: Andrea Pirlo breaks into a wry smile as the interpreter translates a question he must have known was coming.

So how close was he to joining his old manager Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea three years ago, before AC Milan declared that the man now regarded as the best playmaker in the history of Italian football was not for sale?

The answer, once the smile fades and Pirlo decides to speak about it for the first time, is very close indeed. Not only were the two clubs in negotiation, Pirlo himself was sufficiently certain of following Ancelotti to Stamford Bridge that he had opened talks with Chelsea over personal terms.

Despite later expressing his delight at the “mutual” decision to keep him in Milan, the truth was rather different.

“Actually, Milan wouldn’t let me go,” he now reveals. “I have a very strong connection with Ancelotti so I was in touch with him when he went to Chelsea and I’m still in touch with him now he’s at Paris Saint-Germain.

“I had already started negotiating with the people at Chelsea but then finally Milan didn’t let me go. That’s why I stayed.

“Certainly it would have been a different experience that I’d have liked, especially when I was 30 years old. So why not? But unfortunately it didn’t happen.”

Now 33 and playing for Juventus, who take on Chelsea in a crucial Champions League match on Tuesday, Pirlo almost seems to get better with age. Has the opportunity to play in England gone, or could he still come to the Premier League?

“Maybe, who knows?” he says. “I don’t know what might happen. You never know. I still have two years left with Juventus, this season and next.

“I like English football a lot. There are plenty of very good teams. They are very aggressive so it’s always entertaining to watch.

“It wouldn’t be a problem for me fitting into that particular style because I’ve played with different players with different characteristics throughout my career.”

In Turin on Tuesday, Pirlo faces the club he so nearly joined knowing that, realistically, Juve must beat Chelsea to progress to the knockout stage.

They trail the European champions by one point and are away to Shakhtar Donetsk in their last game, while Chelsea face Nordsjaelland at Stamford Bridge.

“Absolutely,” he says. “We have to fight hard because it wouldn’t be great going into the final match still one point behind. This is a vital game for us and them. There are great expectations.”

Chelsea’s Champions League triumph last season was dramatic, but far from entertaining. So too was England’s negative approach to their Euro 2012 quarter-final in Kiev in the summer, which Pirlo’s Italy won on penalties.

It is safe to say that this is not now how one of the greatest exponents of football as an art form likes to see the game played. “Obviously Chelsea were successful and able to win the Champions League with their own tactics and style, but yes it’s true this is not the type of football I like,” says Pirlo.

“Then England played the whole match against us on defence so we had an opportunity to control the game.”