Best Goalie " GIANLUIGI BUFFON "
Gianluigi Buffon (born 28 January 1978) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. He captains both Serie A club Juventus and the Italy national team.
He is widely regarded by players, pundits and managers to be one of the
greatest goalkeepers of all time, and,
by some, to be the greatest ever. Buffon is one of only eighteen players to
have made at least 1,000 professional career appearances; with 168
international caps, Buffon is also the most capped player in
the history of the
Italian national team, the joint fifth-most capped male
international footballer of all time, and the most capped European
international player ever. Buffon is known for his "outstanding
shot-stopping" and for being "a vocal organizer of the defence and a
key dressing room personality". He
is currently the most expensive goalkeeper in history, following his €53 million
transfer from Parma to
Juventus in 2001. Buffon holds the record for the most clean sheets in Serie A,
and with the Italy national team; he also holds the record for the longest streak without
conceding a goal in Serie A history: over 12 league matches, he went
unbeaten for 974 consecutive minutes during the 2015–16 season, as well as
having achieved the most consecutive clean sheets (10) in Serie A in that same
season.
At club level, Buffon's professional career
began with Parma in 1995, where he made his Serie A debut, and was soon
promoted to the role of starting goalkeeper, earning a reputation as one of the
most promising young goalkeepers in Italy; during his time with the club, he
won the Coppa Italia, the UEFA Cup and the Supercoppa Italiana, all
in 1999. After joining Juventus in 2001, Buffon immediately won Serie A titles
in both of his first two seasons at the club, and established himself as one of
the best players in the world in his position. After winning two more
consecutive league titles in 2005 and 2006, the club were later stripped of
these titles and relegated due to their involvement in the 2006 Italian football scandal.
Despite rumours of his departure, Buffon remained with Juventus, contributing
to the club's Serie B title
and promotion back to Serie A in 2007. Following several trophyless seasons,
Buffon later played a key role in Juventus' resurgence, which saw the club win
an Italian record of six consecutive league titles between 2011 and 2017; he
also inherited the captain's armband following the departure of Alessandro Del Piero in 2012. In total, he has won eight
Serie A titles, three Coppa Italia titles, and five Supercoppa Italiana titles
with Juventus.
With the Italy national team, Buffon has been
called up for an international record of five FIFA World Cup tournaments
(1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014) since making his
debut in 1997, featuring in four of them as Italy's starting goalkeeper (he was
an unused substitute in 1998). He was the starting goalkeeper of the Italian
team that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which
saw him keep a record five clean sheets, and concede only two goals, neither of
which were in open play. He has also represented Italy at four European Championships,
at the 1996 Olympics, and at two FIFA Confederations Cups,
winning a bronze medal in the 2013 edition of the tournament.
Buffon has also won numerous, prestigious
individual and team awards. He was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of
the world's greatest living players in 2004. He has been named the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year a record eleven times. Buffon was the
winner of the 2006 Yashin Award following
Italy's World Cup victory, in which he was also elected to be part of the Team of the Tournament; an honour which he
also received after reaching the quarter-finals of the 2008 European Championships, and the final of the 2012 European Championships. Buffon is the only goalkeeper to
have won the UEFA Club Footballer of the
Year Award, which he
won in 2003 after reaching the
Champions League final; he also won the award for best Goalkeeper
that year, and was voted into the UEFA Team of the Year in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2016. In 2006,
Buffon was runner-up for the Ballon d'Or and
was elected to be part of the FIFPro World XI,
an honour which he also achieved in 2007. After reaching the 2015 Champions League final,
he was named to the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League
Squad of the Season, and placed fourth in the 2015 UEFA Best Player in Europe
Award. He has been named the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper four times (second only to Iker Casillas, with five awards) and was also named the best
goalkeeper of the 21st century, of the past 25 years, and of the decade, by the
same organisation. In 2016, he
became the first goalkeeper ever to win the Golden Foot Award,
which pertains to both personality and playing ability.
This picture above showing the legend was left heartbroken after losing Champions League for the third time.The true leadership from him really inspires everyone.
Comments
Post a Comment