Gianluigi Buffon: The fearless teenager who broke the goalkeeping mould
By Max Cooper
Gianluigi Buffon is a household name in football. If you've held any minimal interest in the sport over the past 30 years, then you'll have heard of the big Italian. An imperious, commanding goalkeeper with a booming voice and baseball catching mitts, Gigi is largely heralded as the greatest shot-stopper of his generation.
Many others believe he is the best goalkeeper in football history. In fairness, it's easy to see why. A 2006 World Cup winner and a Euro 2000 finalist with Italy, a 10-time Serie A champion, plus three Champions League silver medals, Buffon has been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
His career has spanned an entire quarter of a century, and now entering another season with Juventus, he is already the record holder for the most Serie A appearances and clean sheets, and has been voted in the Team of the Season an unbelievable 12 times.
So many of these triumphs occurred during Buffon's long and illustrious spell with Juventus, whom he joined in 2001 for a world record fee at the time. I Bianconeri clearly rated the young Italian's chances of being a permanent fixture in Turin, and decided to splash €52m on the goalkeeper, a price tag he surely paid off over the next 20 years.
It was such a monumental sum of cash however, that it has only been surpassed twice in the search for the next best keeper. Liverpool initially broke the record to sign Alisson Becker from AS Roma, only for Chelsea to smash it again when they landed Athletic Bilbao star Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Hit and miss, you might say.
The point is, it's a huge risk spending that amount of money on a shot-stopper, but from an early age, Buffon had convinced Europe's heavyweights that he was worth the cash. He proved them right, too.
Where did it all begin for the legendary goalkeeper though, and how did he rise so rapidly to stardom?
Buffon kicked off his journey in the world of football by signing for Parma's youth team in 1991, only 13 years of age at the time. As a youngster he was naturally gifted in a number of positions, but it was after witnessing Cameroon keeper Thomas N'Kono at Italia '90 that the starlet decided he wanted to keep clean sheets, rather than dirty them.
As it turns out, he was even more talented in this role than any outfield position. His unquestionable ability between the sticks meant it was only a matter of time before he got the nod at senior level, and that came in November 1995, when aged 17, he was chosen as the last line of defence between the net and the greatest team on the planet.
Milan were pretty good. So good in fact, that they would go on to win the title handsomely later that season. A team coached by Fabio Capello, which possessed the likes of George Weah, Roberto Baggio and Marco Simone, was expected to stroll to victory against the plucky underdogs.
Genuinely nobody could have predicted the impact the young goalkeeper would have on the 90 minutes that followed, and how that one match would change the history of Italian football forever. Buffon gave one of the best debuts ever seen, pulling off a string of brilliant reaction saves and denying some of calcio's finest strikers from breaking the deadlock.
His brave, offensive style of goalkeeping prevented Baggio from opening the scoring from close range, and he somehow parried a vicious Simone effort from the edge of the six-yard box. It was sensational stuff. All the talk after the match surrounded this teenage wonderkid, but little did they know, he'd go on to become the world's very best.
It was the confidence of such a young man, in such a demanding and intense atmosphere, that surprised just about everyone. He revelled in the pressure, with the exuberance and daredevilish nature of a man born to perform on the biggest of stages. And to go with that self-belief, he had the skills to back it up.
Lightning reactions from point-blank range, a sixth sense for danger and a habit of pulling an unthinkable rabbit out of the hat. He had the perfect balance of maverick and ruthless winner to become a legend of the game. A sensible rock and roll star.
Buffon went on to make a handful of appearances that season, but it was in the 1996/97 campaign where he really became common knowledge in Italian homes. He was selected as the starting goalkeeper for a Parma team that shocked Serie A, finishing second in the league, only two points behind winners Juventus.
I Crociati were typically stubborn at the back, conceding only 26 goals in 34 matches, as the whole of Italy started to take notice of this new force in their sport. A defence including Fabio Cannavaro and Lilian Thuram protected their young shot-stopper, but he needed no extra help than any other star in his position. He was quickly transforming into the real deal.
The next year was less impressive for Parma, but the hype swirling around Buffon continued to build. He made headlines by expertly palming away a penalty from the world's greatest player, Ronaldo, during a clash with Inter, and won the nickname 'Superman' for his miraculous saves.
This iconic Parma team hit its peak in the 1998/99 season, becoming everyone's second team around the world with their rock and roll European exploits. A side consisting of Faustino Asprilla, Juan Sebastian Veron, Hernan Crespo and many other elite players secured a fourth-place finish in the league, clinching European football for another season. It was in the cup competitions where they really made their mark, though.
Led by the inspirational and impenetrable Buffon, Parma won the Coppa Italia against Fiorentina, and then hammered Marseille by three goals to nil in the UEFA Cup final. It remains one of the most memorable moments in European football, and Buffon's only European success.
His love affair with Parma eventually came to an end, and although the club went on to hit some heart-breaking lows on and off the field in the coming years, Buffon was on an upward trajectory towards securing his fate as the greatest in his field of all time.