Giorgio Chiellini too busy living the LAFC good life to retire

Giorgio Chiellini is having the time of his life.

After 23 years of professional football career, which has seen Chiellini play at two World Cups, win an Olympic bronze medal, captain Italy to the European Championship and win nine Serie A titles with Juventus, Chiellini still embraces every game and training session the way it is is his first.

“He’s a big kid, but in a good way,” said LAFC teammate Kellyn Acosta. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe he’s, I don’t know, 45 years old?”

Close. Chiellini will turn 39 in the middle of the upcoming MLS season, which kicks off with LAFC in the Rose Bowl against Galaxy on Saturday. But if he’s made a concession to age, he insists on enjoying the final days of an unprecedented career that has seen him recognized as one of the finest defenders of his generation.

“I enjoy every day because I know I’m near the end,” he said. “There are many problems in life, but I think we have to enjoy what we’re doing.”

LAFC defenseman Giorgio Chiellini, center, celebrates with teammates after a win over the Seattle Sounders in July.

(Ringo HW Chiu/Associated Press)

That desire to get the most out of football was behind his surprise decision to leave Juventus and Italy for LAFC last June despite having a year left on his contract.

“I came here to enjoy this league, to discover new things, to understand what football is like in the US now, at what level, and also to understand a different perspective on the sporting business and sport here . That’s a huge difference,” he said.

Incidentally, “enjoy” is both a word that Chiellini uses frequently and an emotion that he seems to experience almost as often.

“Giorgio is always like that,” said Alessandro Del Piero, a former club and international player and arguably the greatest Italian player of all time. “He’s always passionate about his job and his life.”

Del Piero is as responsible as anyone for his former teammate’s decision to join the MLS. After retiring in 2015, he moved to LA and opened a trendy Italian restaurant on the West Side called N10, after his uniform number. Since then he has been touting the virtues of the city to everyone who will listen – including Chiellini, who has never played for a team outside of Italy.

“He’s very smart,” Del Piero continues of his former teammate, who has a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s degree in business administration and is the author of two books. “…He understands what’s going on, what the future could be.

“We spoke before he came to LA and of course I explained to him what it means to be in the US, what it means to be in LA specifically. He was always very interested and curious to learn as much as possible. He spends a lot of time in my restaurant.”

But Chiellini also came here to win as he failed to lift at least one trophy with Juventus in his last season in Italy for the first time in a decade. When he joined LAFC mid-season, he was primarily expected to mentor and tutor the team’s young defenders. Instead, he played in 11 of LAFC’s last 16 regular-season games, starting nine of them and appearing in two of the team’s three playoff games as LAFC won both the Supporters’ Shield and the MLS Cup.

“I wanted to help the team [by] I bring my knowledge but also my attitude,” said Chiellini, who speaks fluent English. “It’s not about me because to be honest I’m giving the team what I can. But it is the work of all coaches, the work of the entire club. Everyone has different goals, but everyone needs these trophies to achieve their own goals.”

LAFC defender Giorgio Chiellini passes the ball in front of Seattle Sounders midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro during a game in July.

(Ringo HW Chiu/Associated Press)

Whether LAFC will repeat themselves as champions will depend on how hungry the players are. Chiellini’s Juventus teams won nine consecutive Italian championships; no MLS team has successfully defended a title since 2012.

“It’s not easy,” he said of MLS. “The rules don’t help a team start a dynasty because [of] the salary cap. When you win, everyone asks for more money. But the most important thing is the attitude and the mentality. Continue to be hungry. Hungry to raise trophies, hungry to win.”

Chiellini’s greatest contributions to the inaugural LAFC championship were mostly immaterial. His joy at just being on the field was contagious, with a smiling Chiellini roaming the area and flattening opposing strikers, then helping them to their feet with a grin and an encouraging slap on the bum.

His energy is just as contagious.

“He takes things very seriously, in the gym, at practice, at the games,” Acosta said. “His energy is tremendous for us, a guy who is very vocal. He’s lived through everything from the Champions League to the World Cup to play at the highest level for so many years. And he continues to play at a high level.

“Player, coach, mentor, brother, friend. He does everything.”

Most of his teammates expected all of this. What they hadn’t counted on, however, was his granular knowledge of MLS. Many of the European veterans who have come to MLS came with little understanding or respect for the league. Chiellini arrived with both.

“He actually surprised me because he literally watches every single MLS game,” Acosta said. “He knows all the players. When he first came in he already knew my name and where I had played before and how many games.

And while some imports have tried to recreate a European setting in MLS, Chiellini said it was a mistake. He was eager for something new.

“If you want to change everything, you lose at the beginning,” he said. “You have to accept the different culture, different habits, and you have to take the first step to have that different way of playing. Everything is different. It is not easy.

“But you have to adapt quickly. There are very good things in this league. The environment is very good. It’s a different way of life. I really loved every day I spent in the US.”

So, he said, has his family. Chiellini and his wife Carolina have two daughters, 7-year-old Nina and 3-year-old Olivia, and the opportunity to introduce them to a different lifestyle and language was a huge bonus of the move and one of the things that Del Piero stressed the most.

“It will be an unforgettable experience for my family,” said Chiellini, whose daughters both study in English. “In Italy we are not happy about having different cultures. LA is a city of different cultures. And it’s amazing how you can learn from it [little] Time many, many things.”

Chiellini cannot say how long this training will last. His $1.075 million TAM-funded contract expires at the end of the season, according to the MLS Players’ Association. Being offered a new contract – or even wanting one at all – isn’t something keeping him up at night.

“It’s very difficult to think about next year,” he said. “In my career after 30, then 32 and now at 38, I’ve learned that you can’t plan for long because everything changes so quickly. You have to be willing to adapt.

“I live in the moment.”

And right now, life is pretty good.