Gianluigi Buffon

Let’s start this this list of the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) soccer players with a goalkeeper: Gianluigi Buffon. He is known as one of the best goalkeepers in FIFA and has quite a history behind it. Born in Camara Italy to a family of athletes who competed globally, Buffon knew from the start that he wanted to paly sports. His father being a renowned weight lifter in Italy and mother being a discus thrower inspired him a lot to take sports competitively. At first he had a hard time trying to find the right sport for himself, but when he did, he never stopped. Buffon started of as a midfielder and was quite good at it. In is soccer training classes he was improving drastically year by year. However, by the time he entered teenage, another known soccer player called Thomas N’Koko, Cameroonian goalkeeper from 1975 to 1994, inspired him to switch gears. By watching N’Koko play and get victories for his team by saving goals, Buffon decider that he wants to be a goalkeeper just like him.

His career took of in 1992 when he got to join the Parma F.C’s youth system. His showcase of talent had everyone shocked there. In 1995 he got to join the senior team as their substitute goalkeeper, but by 1997, he became their regular goalkeeper. It is said that he played a huge role in Parma winning the Italian Cup, the Italian Supercup, and the Europa League in the late 90s. His career growth started to dry out for the next 20 years as he wasn’t able to qualify for playing in the world cup or the champions league, however, things got much better for him when he got signed by Juventus F.C for $45 million dollars, one of the highest paid contracts for goalkeepers ever, in 2001. This was a very heavily criticized contract, but it all turned out well. Juventus F.C won 4 league titles in a row with him as their goalkeeper. In 2003 Buffon won the Europa League’s club footballer of the year award, being one of the few goalkeepers to do so.

2006 turned out as another bad year for the goalkeeper because of the controversial “Calciopoli Scandal”. However, after a few years of bad luck, Buffon came back to the top. He even won the IFFHS’s Best Goalkeeper Of The Year Award”. He almost won the Ballon D’or the same year, being one of the few goalkeepers to do so. In 2008 he performed excellent in the Europa champions league, but couldn’t play in the 2010 world cup due to a back injury.

In 2013 he let the opponent score no goals in the finals and got his team a crushing victory. He even became the captain of the Italian team in the world cup of 2014. In 2018 he retired and gave football 26 great years of his talent.