Claudio Pizarro interview: Playing for Guardiola, being 'coached' by Xabi Alonso

Does it make Claudio Pizarro feel old now that his former Bayern Munich team-mate Xabi Alonso is on the brink of taking Bayer Leverkusen to the title? “I have no problem with that,” he tells Sky Sports. “I have had many coaches who were younger than me!”

Pizarro, now 45, became a byword for Bundesliga longevity, finally quitting at 41. He retired as a two-club legend, having scored over 100 goals for both Bayern and Werder Bremen. Robert Lewandowski is the only foreign player to score more in the competition.

That he kept going for so long partly explains why Pizarro is now a Bayern ambassador rather than pursuing a coaching career like Alonso. "I gave so much time to football that I wanted some time for me." But how did he manage to prolong his career at the top?

"I had to take care of my body a lot." He took that up a notch when he returned to Bayern for a second spell. "I changed my diet when I was 34 to try to continue playing." It worked for a while. "In the head, you can continue playing until you are 60," he laughs.

"In the end, you have to listen to your body. It is your body that says you cannot do that anymore. You are competing against young players who are at another speed and the recovery is low when you are, let's say, experienced. It is not easy."

Even so, the man who played under Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola was still finding a yard on defenders past 40. It brought six Bundesliga titles with Bayern and even a cup with Bremen. Does he regard scoring as a sixth sense? Not quite. He learned his craft.

"That is the other reason why you can play for a long time. You learn how to be fast in your head because you are not that fast anymore in your legs. That gives you more time. It is not instinct. You learn from