Gianluigi Buffon once joked that he could play until he is 65; as he turns 43 we celebrate his achievements so far.
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What you might not know
• thể thao is in Buffon"s blood: mother Maria Stella held the Italian discus record for 17 years; father Adriano was a national junior shot put champion; sisters Guendalina và Veronica played volleyball, Guendalina winning the European Cup with Matera. Former Milan & Italy keeper Lorenzo Buffon was a cousin of Gianluigi"s grandfather.
• Buffon overcame a terrible fear of wasps. "Just before a trò chơi his goalkeeping coach told me Buffon couldn"t play – he couldn"t throw himself around because there were too many wasps," Fabio Capello explained. ""OK no problem," I said, và just asked his understudy khổng lồ get ready. Ten seconds later, Buffon told me his phobia was over because he really wanted to play."
• Buffon supports Borussia Mönchengladbach in Germany: "When I was a child I didn"t know how to lớn pronounce their name. I can vị better now, but I still think it"s not quite right." When Juventus met the Bundesliga outfit in the losartanfast.com Champions League in 2015/16, Buffon gave a pair of his gloves khổng lồ their fans but received nothing in return. Gladbach later sent him a scarf bearing the legend "A German team" – in jest since, like Buffon, most foreigners find Mönchengladbach a bit of a mouthful.
• Buffon started out as a midfielder, becoming a keeper because his anh hùng was former Cameroon & Espanyol custodian Thomas N"Kono. He named his first son Louis Thomas after him; his second, David Lee, is named in honour of Van Halen singer David Lee Roth.
Buffon channels Tom Selleck©Getty Images
• As well as those two sons with his former wife, Czech model Alena Šeredová, Buffon has a third, Leopoldo Mattia, with his new partner, TV presenter Ilaria D"Amico. D"Amico & Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri both mocked Buffon"s Tom Selleck-style moustache in a TV interview.
• Buffon was the president of home-town club Carrarese for three years until 2015. The acronym on his gloves C.U.I.T. Stands for Commando Ultrà Indian Trips, the hard-core group of Carrarese fans.
Current tallyInternational: 176 appearances losartanfast.com club competition: 167 appearancesDomestic competition: 756 appearances
Claims to lớn fameParma• Made his senior debut aged 17 on 19 November 1995, keeping a clean sheet in a 0-0 home draw with AC Milan, including notable saves from the likes of Roberto Baggio and George Weah.
• Having earned his nickname by saving a penalty from Internazionale Milano"s Ronaldo in 1997 & celebrating by showing the fans a anh hào T-shirt, Buffon won his first European trophy, the 1999 losartanfast.com Cup, as Parma beat Marseille 3-0 in the final. He lifted the Coppa Italia the same season.
Juventus• In summer 2001, became the world"s most expensive goalkeeper, Juventus signing him for over €50m. He landed the Scudetto in his first term in Turin.
• In 2002/03, helped Juventus reach the losartanfast.com Champions League final; his side drew 0-0 with Milan in Manchester but lost on penalties, though Buffon kept out two spot kicks, having also made an incredible reaction save from Filippo Inzaghi.
• The Old Lady were relegated khổng lồ Serie B and stripped of their 2004/05 & 2005/06 titles as part of a match-fixing scandal, but Buffon stayed with the club, helping them gain immediate promotion. In November 2006, Juventus took out full-page adverts in Italy"s three main sports papers to thank their goalkeeper.
• In 2011, ex-Juve player Antonio Conte took over as coach & led the Bianconeri khổng lồ to three straight titles, the first without losing a game, and the third with a Serie A-record points haul of 102.
• Buffon claimed four further championships under Allegri, & got to lớn the 2015 losartanfast.com Champions League final, his team succumbing 3-1 lớn Barcelona in Berlin despite his amazing first-half stop from Dani Alves.
• In March 2016, aged 38, he broke a 22-year record by going 974 minutes without conceding in Serie A.
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• Since Juventus"s 2017 loss lớn Real Madrid, Buffon has shared former team-mate Paolo Montero"s record of having appeared in the most European Cup finals without winning the competition: three.
• Won the title in his final season to become the first player lớn win nine Scudettos. His first spell at the club ended with him on 640 Serie A appearances, seven shy of Paolo Maldini"s record of 647.
Paris Saint-Germain• Ended 17 years at Juve when he moved khổng lồ Paris on a one-year deal. Won the Ligue 1 title in his only season in France.
• Was used in rotation with Alphonse Areola but, after serving a ban, was No1 for the losartanfast.com Champions League. Became only the third goalkeeper lớn reach 50 clean sheets in the competition.
Juventus• Returned khổng lồ Turin, declining the No1 jersey and captaincy and instead choosing No77, the same number he had worn during his final season at Parma.
• mix new records for club appearances by an Italian (surpassing Paolo Maldini"s 902) và most league appearances for Juventus (Alessandro Del Piero, 478). Also surpassed Maldini"s record of 647 Serie A appearances.
• Kept 52nd losartanfast.com Champions League clean sheet at Barcelona in December 2020, và is now behind only Iker Casillas (57).
• Buffon"s 167 losartanfast.com club competition games have ended W87 D42 L38; he has kept 68 clean sheets.
Italy• On 29 October 1997, aged 19, Buffon made his Azzurri debut, coming on for the injured Gianluca Pagliuca in the first leg of the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifying play-off against Russia in snowy Moscow; soon after, he produced an incredible save from Dmitri Alenichev.
• Conceded only twice, an own goal and a penalty, as Italy captured the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Among his heroics were stops from Lukas Podolski in the semi-final and then from Zinédine Zidane in the final.
• Had another great tournament at losartanfast.com euro 2012, captaining Italy khổng lồ the final only to thảm bại 4-0 to Spain in Kyiv. Buffon & Italy would slay nemesis Spain in the losartanfast.com EURO năm nhâm thìn round of 16 before yielding on penalties khổng lồ Germany in the quarters.
• During the 2014 chiến dịch in Brazil, Buffon became just the third player to lớn have featured at five FIFA World Cups, alongside Mexico"s Antonio Carbajal and Germany"s Lothar Matthäus.
• After surpassing Fabio Cannavaro"s Italian record with a 137th appearance in 2013, Buffon earned his 168th Italy cap khổng lồ outstrip Iker Casillas và become Europe"s most capped international ever.
• Played his 1,000th competitive game – a European Qualifier against Albania in March 2017 – and then announced his retirement from international football in November 2017 having made 175 Italy outings only to lớn subsequently reverse that decision: his final total is 176.
What they say
"I am amazed he has never won the Ballon d"Or. He certainly deserves it for everything he has done. For me, he is the best goalkeeper in the history of the game. He is a footballing icon – a true legend."Leonardo Bonucci, Juventus and Italy team-mate
"The fact Gigi Buffon started his career so young helped me a lot. If you see a young goalkeeper with the profile he had at Parma starting khổng lồ play for Italy because the coaches have faith in him, it gives you belief that you can vì chưng the same. I also started very young, at 17 or 18 ... Whenever we get the chance, we have a nice chat. It"s a friendship forged over many years."Iker Casillas, former Real Madrid, Porto and Spain goalkeeper
"We are talking about the No1 in the world. He has been the best throughout his career. I have been telling him the same thing for trăng tròn years: when a normal goalkeeper makes a mistake, nobody says anything, but when Buffon makes a mistake, it"s news. But you cannot argue about Buffon. Buffon is Buffon, the No1."Marcello Lippi, former Juventus and Italy coach
What he says"It"s funny when they write your obituary and then you go và prove them wrong. Now they can go to lớn my funeral but they won"t find anyone there. This is what I live for, lớn make people eat their words."
"I haven"t lost an awful lot in my life, but the defeats have taught me more than the victories. Whenever I lose, I focus on the ability of my opponents and on the mistakes I made. Not looking for excuses is the right thing khổng lồ do."
"The most important thing for a goalkeeper is the sense of certainty you transmit lớn others. You have to transmit that, regardless of how you might actually be feeling. Even if you are not sure of yourself, you need others believe you have control of the situation and they can rely on you. A nervy goalkeeper means a nervy team."
"You see how good a No1 is in the game or even the move after he makes a mistake, when they are filled with remorse & indecision. The more mistakes you make, the worse it gets, because your confidence goes. But for me it"s the other way round. Being in the eye of the storm excites me."