Recent developments in the QCD description of the pion structure are
reviewed. The CLEO pion-photon transition data analysis favors a distribution
amplitude for the pion that is double-humped but endpoint-suppressed. After a
short outline of the derivation of this amplitude from QCD sum rules with
nonlocal condensates, we present the fully fledged analysis of the CLEO data
prefaced by predictions for the $F^{\gamma\rho\pi}$ form factor and commenting
on the inherent theoretical uncertainties due to higher twists and NNLO
perturbative corrections. We supplement our discussion by considering within
QCD factorization theory, the electromagnetic pion form factor at NLO accuracy
on one hand, and diffractive di-jets production on the other, comparing our
predictions with the respective experimental data from JLab and the Fermilab
E791 collaboration. In all cases, the agreement is impressive.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures consisting of 8 eps files. Contribution to the
Festschrift on the occasion of Klaus Goeke's 60th birthday, to appear in
Annalen der Physi