Giorgio Chiellini's wild handball for LAFC in the MLS has gone viral

Giorgio Chiellini is loving life in the MLS.

The legendary Italian defender called time on his 17-year spell at Juventus in the summer, opting as many ageing players do to wave goodbye to European football by crossing the Atlantic for the American dream.

By signing for Los Angeles FC, Chiellini has followed in the footsteps of icons such as David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard by plumping for a move to California.

And the 37-year-old is in esteemed company at LAFC itself with none other than Gareth Bale, a five-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid, also signing for the club in recent weeks.

In fact, the Wales star found himself on the scoresheet during LAFC’s 4-1 win over Real Salt Lake on Sunday, which proved to be Chiellini’s fourth game in black and gold, with a spectacular solo strike.

But not before Chiellini had made headlines of his own for a bizarre moment at the Rio Tinto Stadium that not only saw him awarded with a yellow card, but also led to him going viral on Twitter.

With the visitors leading 3-1 courtesy of Cristian Arango’s brace and a Kellyn Acosta strike, Chiellini used – how shall we say? – unique methods to thwart a Real Salt Lake counterattack in the second-half.

The Utah club had freshly snuffed out an LAFC cross into the box when a clearance from one end of the pitch to the other saw Chiellini faced with a dilemma of whether to come forward or drop back.

With Sergio Córdova on his shoulder, the Euro 2020 winner decided to opt for the former by trying to nip the counterattack in the bud, but seemingly misjudged his charge in the process and ended up turning to volleyball.

That’s because, in the space of an astonishing few seconds, Chiellini didn’t opt to head