“Moral bankruptcy”: World champions Pirlo and Materazzi in Moscow

The former midfielder and the defender were in Moscow as part of the Football Day celebrations, which took place from Russian Football Association and that Moscow Sports Committee were organized like that Corriere dello Sport reported.

Pirlo and Materazzi, along with local stars, took part in autograph sessions with fans, a friendly match, children’s activities and photo ops with Russian footballers, including Artem Dzyuba. The 37-year-old is considered a big supporter of Russia’s president Wladimir Putin and has repeatedly publicly defended it and its geopolitics, always dutifully repeating Kremlin propaganda.

“Moral Bankruptcy”

Strong criticism of the Italian visit also came from the world of sport. Among other things, the Ukrainian skeleton pilot who was excluded from the Olympic Games Wladislaw Heraskewytsch.

He described the visit as a “disgrace”: “Today one of the largest Russian attacks took place, in which 600 drones and 90 missiles were fired at Ukraine. Also today, Italian football legend Andrea Pirlo was seen in Moscow next to Russian footballer Dzyuba, who openly supports Kremlin policies and the killing of Ukrainians,” Heraskewytsch wrote on Twitter. “It is sad to see how childhood heroes become moral bankruptcy, for whom nothing is more valuable than Russian rubles.”