Pirlo regrets never playing for Real Madrid, Barcelona

Despite his illustrious career, Andrea Pirlo continues to have regrets as he edges towards retirement.

Pirlo - who has a lengthy resume of football achievements on both the international and club levels - wishes he ventured out to Spain to represent one of the two biggest clubs in the world, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

"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," the 37-year-old told Spanish outlet Marca, as translated by Adriana Garcia of ESPN FC.

"But I consider myself very satisfied to have played for the best teams in Italy."

Real Madrid and Barcelona attempted to lure him away from Italy on two occasions until AC Milan put an end to their attempts.

First, Real came knocking in 2005, when Italian manager Fabio Capello was in charge, as Pirlo revealed he was intrigued by the possibility of playing at the Santiago Bernabeu, but ultimately remained as a result of 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."

Then, before Pirlo left Milan for Juventus, former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola expressed an interest in bringing him to the Camp Nou in 2010. However, Milan wasn't willing to part with Pirlo.

"How could you not want to go there? Guardiola told me he wanted me in his team."

Transfers to either Spanish giant would have undoubtedly added to his swelling trophy case, which already contains a World Cup winners medal, several Serie A titles, and two Champions League crowns, among dozens of other honours.

Unfortunately, Pirlo was unable to capture any silverware this season, after his New York City FC side was knocked out of the Major League Soccer playoffs earlier this month.