Gianluigi Buffon set records and standards for fun in a peerlessly brilliant career
It feels weird to say Gigi Buffon was the best keeper of a generation, considering just how vast his career was. He was the best of about five by the end…
Gianluigi Buffon’s retirement announcement has brought the curtain down on one of the greatest and most iconic careers, one which places him among the best to ever stand between the sticks and certainly the greatest of his own generation.
With respect to contemporaries such as Iker Casillas and Manuel Neuer, Buffon’s body of work is unparalleled in terms of brilliance, achievements and longevity.
It is rather fitting that the legendary keeper retires at the frankly ridiculous age of 45 with Parma, where he started his career nearly 30 years ago.
Making his debut at just 17 in 1995 against the mighty AC Milan, Buffon set the tone for his career by keeping a clean sheet against the soon-to-be crowned Serie A champions. It would be the first of a record 296 in Italy’s top flight.
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Buffon’s arrival in the Parma first team would coincide with a golden period for the club, which saw Hernan Crespo, Pavel Nedved, Lillian Thuram and fellow Italian icon Fabio Cannavaro star in a team that captured the Coppa Italia, Italian Super Cup and UEFA Cup in 1999, the latter being the sole European trophy of Buffon and Cannavaro’s club careers.
Having quickly established himself as the premier stopper in Serie A, Buffon took the next step in his career by making his international debut at the age of just 19, which made him the youngest post-war keeper to do so for Italy. This record was broken by his heir apparent and another Gianluigi, Donnarumma in 2016.
While this came as a result of first-choice Angelo Peruzzi suffering an injury, it would not be long before he took centre stage in goal for Italy, being handed the No.1 shirt by then-manager Dino Zoff in torch-passing moment between Italy’s two greatest keepers. It would be Zoff’s record of Serie A and Juventus clean sheets Buffon would eventually break later down the line.
He missed out on EURO 2000 and the final heartache with a broken hand but reclaimed his starting spot from Francesco Toldo shortly after the tournament and didn’t let it slip for more than 15 years to come.
Like the bulk of the iconic Parma side of the mid-to-late 1990s, he moved onto a bigger club due to both his ability and the financial difficulties that eventually led his old club to ruin in the next decade.
It took all of £33m to bring Buffon from Parma to Turin, as Juventus broke their own transfer record to bring in their man. It was a world-record fee for a goalkeeper too, more than double that of the previous record, and would last until Ederson’s move to Manchester City 14 years later. By then, money had lost all meaning in football.
He replaced Edwin van der Sar in nets with aplomb, instantly living up to his hefty fee and lofty expectations. His first two seasons saw Juventus win back-to-back Serie A titles, and he also claimed Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year awards in both seasons to add the two he had already won with Parma.
Four became 13 when all was said and done, which is 10 more than any other keeper since the award was introduced in 1997.
His second season with Juventus unfortunately was the beginning of his bad luck in the Champions League, where despite winning both keeper and player of the tournament – he remains the only keeper to win the latter award – he suffered the first of three final losses, falling to Milan in a shootout at Old Trafford.
Fast-forwarding to 2006 and the seminal moment in recent Italian football history and that of most of its players, when they reached their highest peak at their lowest ebb.
The Calciopoli match-fixing scandal that engulfed Serie A and several of its biggest clubs would serve as the backdrop to the 2006 World Cup. Similarly to 1982 and Paolo Rossi, the Italian players used the siege mentality to their advantage, claiming a fourth crown in the process.
The tournament was probably Buffon at his absolute best. In front of one of his footballing soulmates and then-captain, Cannavaro, the big keeper was imperious, conceding just twice in seven games and not at all from open play. His role in Italy’s win would see him place second in the Ballon d’Or, behind Cannavaro, in a one-two for the defensive purists.
Following the tournament and Juve’s leading role in the scandal, they were relegated to Serie B and stripped of their 2004/05 and 2005/06 titles. While many chose to depart, Buffon was one of few who stayed loyal to the Old Lady and helped them rise once again, starting with an instant promotion and a second-tier title brilliantly being his next success after the World Cup.
After a tumultuous few years for the club, the appointment of former captain Antonio Conte set about their return to glory, starting with an unbeaten league season in 2011/12 – the only one in the history of the current league format – and a first legitimate title since 2003.
It would also be the first of nine in a row for the club – another national record – although Buffon would only be part of eight of those, taking his personal tally to a record 10.
Additionally, he added five further Coppas Italia to his resume, his six being another all-time tally in Italy, of course.
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By this point, Buffon was also the national team captain, having assumed the role after Cannavaro’s retirement. No more success would follow, with a 4-0 humbling in the EURO 2012 final being the closest the Azzurri came until 2021.
His 80 caps as captain is another record, as is his 176 simply as a player. To put that into context, he has 40 more than Cannavaro and 50 more than Paolo Maldini. His national career lasted for a staggering 21 years from 1997.
Maldini’s all-time Serie A appearance record was also later broken by his one-time No.1, with Buffon bettering the Milan legend by 10 at the time of his final Italian top-flight game in 2021.
While domestic and national team success came aplenty at both team and individual level, the one trophy that alluded him throughout his career was the Champions League, with a 12-year wait for another crack at it ending in 2015 when those hopes were ended by Barca and the fabled MSN combination.
Two years later, it would be a similar story, with more pain from Spain, this time Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo defeating the Old Lady in Cardiff, and again the following year in a pulsating quarter-final, after which Buffon was sent off. He later claimed referee Michael Oliver had “a rubbish bin where his heart should be”, which was a break from his usual calm behaviour but also a sign of his burning desire to finally win the famous trophy.
If you haven’t noticed by now, Spain have caused Buffon a lot of trouble down the years, and that’s without mentioning Italy’s penalty shoot-out loss at EURO 2008 to the Iberians.
Buffon left Juve at the end of the 2017/18 season but returned after just one season at PSG, missing out on a Serie A title but adding a Ligue Un crown to his overflowing cabinet. It seemed an odd move at the time but maybe his need to win the Champions League drove it.
That's all folks!
You gave me everything.
I gave you everything.
We did it together. pic.twitter.com/bGvIDsoFsG— Gianluigi Buffon (@gianluigibuffon) August 2, 2023
The then-41-year-old stopper’s bad luck was a doomed mix with the Parisiens’ yearly implosions, this time Manchester United reversing a 2-0 first-leg home deficit to knock them out, with Buffon at fault for the second of their three goals.
By now, he was more of a back-up, which he continued to be during his final two seasons back at Juventus, before finishing his career where he started: at Parma, this time in Serie B.
Although unable to bring his boyhood club back up to the top flight on two occasions, it remains a full circle career few can match.
From his incredible shot-stopping and reflexes to his command of the box and his defenders, Buffon was the standard in goalkeeping for the bulk of his career, which was only boosted by his legendary leadership at the back and heart of all of the sides he played in.
For all of this and more, we simply say: Grazie Mille, Gianluigi.