Parma goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has named the five best Italian teammates he has played with in his three-decade long career. The iconic shot-stopper has starred alongside and against some of the greatest players through different generations.
Speaking on an episode of ‘ParmaLive’ (via TuttoJuve), the enigmatic 44-year-old keeper retraced pieces of his career to give an insight on a few hot topics, including the best non-Italian players he’s featured with. He shied away from mentioning one and instead listed five.”
“I can’t pick a name maybe I’m conditioned by the relationships with them. I can not name the 5 strongest Italian attackers because otherwise I will mention 108. Baggio, Totti, Del Piero, Pirlo and Antonio Cassano who, although discontinuous, was worth like the other four. As for foreigners, I’d say Thuram, Neymar, Mbappé, CR7, and Ibra.”
Buffon then went on to discuss the highest point of his career.
“In a career like mine there isn’t one, there are many short ones. The biggest satisfaction was the World Cup. I was 28 years old, and I had playing for 11, I thought I had finished half my career. I thought I was at the end and I wasn’t even halfway.”
Buffon also revealed the different teams that influenced him in his childhood, disclosing some surprising clubs one wouldn’t have thought of before.
“As a child I was influenced by various things: players, colors, championships. As a child I used to go to my uncles in Udine, who were Juventus fans. Trapattoni was coaching them, and then he went to Inter. I did not support the Nerazzurri but I backed the gaffer for two years. When he left, I started following all the smaller clubs. I’ve always liked ‘David and Goliath’. There was Avellino, Genoa, which I followed until I was 15-16.”