He is a World Cup champion, two-time Champions League winner and four-time Serie A Defender of the Year. The $33 million transfer fee A.C. Milan paid to get him from Lazio is one of the highest-ever for a defender. His perfectly timed slide tackles, pace and grit were on full display in a 2011 Champions League match when he repeatedly thwarted Barcelona star Lionel Messi’s goal-bound efforts in the box, one of them a clean-as-a-whistle tackle that went viral on YouTube.

He is widely considered the finest center back of his generation and was named to the FIFA 100 list of best players of all time. And yet, Italian legend Alessandro Nesta goes largely unrecognized on the streets of Miami Beach, where he bought a condo in 2003 and now lives full-time with his wife and three children. Most South Florida sports fans don’t realize that “Sandro” is the coach of Miami FC, an NASL team that plays its games at FIU and practices at St. Thomas University.