Juventus won again. The Old Lady managed to lead 4-1 against Torino in Serie A Italian League Week 30. These results bring Juve closer to the Scudetto title, especially a few hours later the nearest competitor, Lazio, fell 0-3 in the hands of AC Milan.
What deserves attention is the figure who stands under the Juventus crossbar, Gianluigi Buffon. The 42-year-old goalkeeper appeared for the eighth time in the league this season. With this appearance, Buffon officially broke the record of Milan legend Paolo Maldini, as the most performers in Serie A. Gigi has performed 648 times, one ahead of Maldini. Throughout his career in Serie A so far, Buffon has only defended two clubs, AC Parma and Juventus.
Buffon began his career as a portiere at a club that was famous in the 90s, AC Parma. Playing with legends such as Hernan Crespo, Lilian Thuram, Fabio Cannavaro and Enrico Chiesa, Buffon managed to bring Parma to the Coppa Italia, Supercopa Italiana and the 1999 UEFA Cup.
In Serie A too, Parma is consistently a competitor of the Scudetto. It is one of il sete magnifico (the seven greatest) with Juventus, Inter, Milan, Lazio, Roma and Fiorentina.
In 2001 Juventus brought Buffon to the city of Turin with a record transfer of 52 million euros as the most expensive goalkeeper at the time. Judging by its contribution during the black and white shirt, of course Juventus do not feel in vain with the huge amount of fund. Gigi successfully donated 9 Scudetto, 5 Italian Coppa and 6 Supercoppa Italiana.
One prestigious title that escapes his grasp is the big ear, the Champions League. With Juve, Buffon appeared in the finals three times (2003, 2015, 2017) and always lost.
This season, after returning from a brief adventure in France with PSG, Buffon wore the number 77 back. His number 1 changed hands to Wojziek Szczesny. There is an interesting story behind number 77 and Buffon.
During the 2000/2001 season when he was still in Parma, Buffon suddenly changed his jersey from number 1 to number 88. At first glance there was nothing wrong. Buffon only wants to make number 88 as a symbol of his resurrection in Italy, after losing the Euro 2000 final.
But soon, this decision was reviled by some people. The number 88 symbolizes HH which means Hail Hitler, a greeting of Nazi supporters to the former German dictator, Adolf Hitler. Buffon finally changed his jersey number to 77.
IFFHS named Buffon as the 21st century’s best goalkeeper. Buffon’s career is indeed filled with records that are evidence of his greatness. Gigi is the longest concedor in Seria A (12 matches). In total he did not concede in 974 minutes, which he inscribed in the 2015-2016 season.
He was also the first goalkeeper to win the Serie A Player of the Year, the only goalkeeper to win the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year, and took the Italian national team to the 2006 World Cup.
Testimony of Buffon’s quality come from famous names such as Pele, Iker Casillas, Manuel Neuer. Pele for example, put Buffon into the row of 100 version of the best footballer.
After the 2005-2006 season, Juventus were relegated to Serie B due to the Calciopoli case. Juve’s star-studded squad began to be deflated one by one. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Patrick Vieira moved to Inter. Fabio Cannavaro moved to Real Madrid.
Buffon is one of the few senior players who chose to stay. Playing in the second caste with Alessandro del Piero, Pavel Nedved and David Trezeguet, Gigi successfully brought Juve back to Serie A at the end of the 2006-2007 season.
Undergoing transitional seasons for more or less 4 years, Gigi led Juve back to win the first Scudetto since 2012. Then Juve and Buffon carved the record as winning the scudetto seven times in a row.
17 years of defending Juve, Buffon’s name has been synonymous with La Vecchia Signora. To say Buffon means to include Juve and vice versa. Long devotion and interspersed with the sacrifice of playing in Serie B puts Buffon in a special position in the hearts of supporters. Compare with for example Cannavaro who was ridiculed as a traitor when he returned to Juve in 2009. Buffon might have lo spirito, the unyielding spirit typical of Juventus. That’s what makes the record breaking even sweeter.
For fans of the Serie A era of the 90s and early 2000s, Buffon is an idol as a goalkeeper. Buffon was the goalkeeper icon in those days. Not only for the fans, but also for today’s great goalkeepers.
ASL
