Andrea Pirlo reveals former AC Milan team-mate Gennaro Gattuso once ate a SLUG for a €10,000 bet during their their time together at the San Siro

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Andrea Pirlo has revealed former AC Milan team-mate Gennaro Gattuso once ate a slug to win a €10,000 bet during their illustrious period together at the San Siro.

The Italian duo played in the same midfield at Milan for 10 years from 2001-2011, winning two Champions League titles in 2003 and 2007. 

Pirlo and Gattuso were also part of Italy's 2006 World Cup-winning squad and, while taking part in Juventus' All or Nothing docu-series as manager, Pirlo told an amusing tale about his former team-mate and a dare he undertook before Milan played Man United in a 2007 Champions League semi-final tie. 

Andrea Pirlo revealed former team-mate Gennaro Gattuso once ate a slug for a €10,000 bet

The midfield duo (left) won two Champions League trophies and a Serie A title at the San Siro 

Speaking on the eve of the 2020 Italian Super Cup in January 2021 - when Gattuso was managing opposition side Napoli - Pirlo said: 'Once we made a bet... you know the snails, the ones without their shells, so big?

'We said, "Come on Rino, if you eat it we will give you 10 thousand euros, we collect them and then you give them to the intern workers". He took the slug, he sent it down, we didn't give a s***. He wanted to kill us all.'

Gattuso ate the slug despite the life-threatening health risks associated. In 2018 promising Australian rugby player Sam Ballard died eight years after swallowing a slug during a dare, after being infected with rat lungworm. 

Ballard contracted eosinophilic meningo-encephalitis and lapsed into a coma for 420 days leaving him a quadriplegic - and he sadly passed away in November 2018. 

Gattuso has also said of the story in the past: 'The day before an important game, Milan-Manchester (United), we stood concentrated in a circle during warm-up.

Gattuso ate the slug a day before Milan played Man Utd in the Champions League semi-finals 

'There was a snail on the ground. They all said that I’m not brave enough to eat it alive. I’ve said: "Fine, €500 from each of you and I will do it".

'I wanted to give the reward to the four fitness coaches, who were on internship with us.

'I took the snail up, put it in my mouth and swallowed it.'

The pair also won two Serie A titles together and one Coppa Italia, with the eight years of Carlo Ancelotti in charge from 2001-2009 their most successful years. 

The pair pose for the cameras as they go up against each other as managers in January 2021 

Pirlo, who joined Milan from rivals Inter in 2001, left on a free transfer in 2011 for Juventus, going on to win four Scudetto crowns in a row. 

Gattuso, meanwhile, was at Milan from 1999-2012 and finished his career a year later after one solitary season at Swiss club FC Sion. 

Both have dipped their toes into management too, with Pirlo leaving Juve after one soilitary season at the club while Gattuso left Napoli in the same summer.