Italy legend Gianluigi Buffon has backed Juventus captain Giorgio Chiellini to bow out of his club career with a cup victory as the Bianconeri prepare to take on Inter in the final of the Coppa Italia on Wednesday evening.
Buffon wishes Chiellini to achieve what he did before hanging up his boots for the first time in 2018, and then in 2021.
Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport (via FCInterNews), Buffon rallied his long-time teammate to excel is arguably his last cup final in the white and black colours.
He said: “I hope that he ends with the Italian Cup and I wish him to raise it as captain, just as it happened to me in 2018, when I left Juve for the first time to move to PSG, and in 2021, when I won it. and then I accepted Parma’s proposal to live a new experience.”
Chiellini is expected to hang up his boots at the end of the campaign, having spent 17 years as a Juventus shield in front of none other than Buffon himself.
“Il Chiello deserves a great party, because he is a great man, a great player and a great friend. It is difficult to find in one person all the human and professional qualities of him. And I, who was his partner, can only thank him for the help that he has never made me lack in difficult moments and for the joy that he has been able to transmit to the whole group,” ended Buffon.
Juventus are playing their last important game of the season – the Coppa Italia final – despite having two more games in hand in the league season.