(Rome) “It’s over, friends! With a few words, Gianluigi Buffon, considered one of the best goalkeepers in history, said goodbye to football at 45 on Wednesday.
How to turn the page of a legendary career of 28 years, enamelled in particular with ten titles of Italian champion, six crowns in the Italian Cup and especially a World Cup?
“Gigi” took to social media and a four-line message, in English, alongside a short video, to say “ciao” and make a dreaded announcement in Italy.
“It’s over, friends! You gave me everything, I gave you everything. We did it together,” he simply wrote.
His former clubs, Parma (1995-2001 and 2021-23) and Juventus Turin (2001-18 and 2019-21), were more lyrical.
For Parma, with whom he made his Serie A debut on 19 November 1995 aged 17 and won the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) in 1999, Buffon is “a man, a champion, a captain for the club and for the city”.
“Over his illustrious, unparalleled career, Gigi has demonstrated unparalleled ability, relentless determination and unwavering passion on and off the pitch,” insisted club chairman and owner Kyle Krause. .
In a statement from Parma, Buffon reflected on “his 28-year career which seems unbelievable, almost unthinkable, with such consistency over almost three decades”.
For Nevio Scala, the coach who launched him into the deep end of Serie A in Parma, he is simply “the best of all, unrivaled in the world”, he told Quotidiano sportivo.
For its part, Juve wanted “to thank (him) once again”: “This is one of those moments that will be remembered in the history of football. You weren’t just the best, you did more than that, you became THE keeper,” the “Old Lady” ignited in a statement.
Paris SG, a club where he only stayed for one season, in 2018-19, with a title of champion of France and another failure in C1, congratulated him “for an incredible career”.
History will remember that “Gigi”, aka “Superman”, played the last match of his glorious career on May 30, 2023 in Cagliari, a semi-final of accession to the elite lost 3 to 2.
Meanwhile, Buffon, who returned two years ago to Parma, now a resident of the 2nd division, has collected exploits, records and trophies.
He is thus the player who has played the most matches in the Italian Championship (657). “Gigi” is also the record holder of selections (176, between 1997 and 2018) with the Nazionale, with which he played five World Cups (between 1998 and 2014).
With Juventus, he flew over Serie A with ten league titles, while failing to conquer the Champions League, losing in the final three times in 2003, 2015, and 2017.
In the midst of an eventful soap opera on his future, his former teammate at Paris SG Kylian Mbappé paid tribute to him on his social networks.
“A huge honor for me to have had the chance to meet you and cross paths with your legendary career. A golden man with valuable advice that I will keep with me all my life. Have a good trip and above all THANK YOU, ”wrote the captain of the Blues.
A sign of his importance in Italian sport, the political world also paid tribute to him like the Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani: “Thank you for all these victories and for having carried us to the roof of the world. You are a legend.”
Because Buffon’s greatest feat of arms will remain Italy’s victory at the 2006 World Cup, under the orders of Marcello Lippi.
In the 103rd minute of the final at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin against Zinédine Zidane’s France, during an unbreathable extension, he made a capital and improbable save against his teammate at Juve.
With the Nazionale, he played in five World Cups (between 1998 and 2014) and reached the final of Euro-2012 (4-0 defeat against Spain), before retiring from international football in 2018.
It is also perhaps with the national team that his future will be played out according to the Italian press, with a role as head of delegation in the management of the “Azzurri”.
