Gianluigi Buffon confirms he will leave Juventus

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has revealed that he will not extend his contract beyond this season and will leave the club for the second time in the summer.

Buffon initially left Juve in 2018 and spent a year at Paris Saint-Germain. But he returned to Turin in 2019 and has continued to play more than 10 games a season, despite recently turning 43.

But with his contract due to expire at the end of the season, Buffon has now confirmed there are no plans to sign a new deal. He will leave as a free agent, allowing him to potentially join another club or contemplate retirement more than 26 years after making his professional debut.

“I’ve decided to leave Juventus at the end of the season, I’m not extending the contract,” he told beIN SPORTS.

Buffon also referred to it as the ‘definitive end’ to his ‘long and beautiful’ association with the club.

The veteran goalkeeper has played over 1,000 career games for club and country, including 176 senior caps for Italy. He had made 220 appearances for Parma before Juve made him the most expensive goalkeeper in the world in 2001, a record that stood for 17 years, and went on play over 650 games during his first spell in Turin.

Buffon already holds the Serie A record for most appearances and is behind only Alessandro Del Piero on Juve’s all-time list. He is also the second most internationally capped European player of all time, with only Spain’s Sergio Ramos representing a European national team more often.

Buffon will leave Juventus with 10 Serie A titles to his name, as well as four Coppa Italia trophies. He also won silverware with Parma and PSG, as well as the World Cup with Italy. But the Champions League is the one that has famously always eluded him, losing finals in 2003, 2015 and 2017.

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