For those of you who don’t follow the different Juventus social media accounts, the club just uploaded a 16-hour long highlights video of goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
Yes, that’s right. Just like He-Man has a 10-hour long repeat video, Buffon has an even longer one, with plenty of great moments, but also repeats. All this, to honor arguably the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the sport, who recently set the new all-time Italian Serie A record at 974 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal.
Buffon, the most expensive goalkeeper in football history, has been playing since 1995, joining Juventus in 2001 from Parma. The rest? History. He hasn’t won the Champions League but has done quite well for himself, winning the World Cup with Italy in 2006 and the Scudetto with Bianconeri six times (or eight, depending if you count the 2005 and 2006 titles). He’s won the Serie A goalkeeper award 10 times, including in 2014 and 2015.
Approaching the age of 38, there doesn’t seem to be any sign that he’s slowing down. He might not be in his mid 00’s form, but he’s better than three or four seasons ago. The championship streak Juventus have started since moving to their new stadium, reasserting their dominance and hold over Italian football while gaining a huge financial advantage through their Champions League success and unique stadium situation has helped Buffon recapture his golden days, in his football’s golden years.
It could have been a 24-hour compilation and it still wouldn’t have captured everything great about his career. On his way to a 7th league title (or ninth?), Buffo is pushing hard towards 40 with 155 caps for the Italian national team. His dominance after so many years might suggest he truly is as close to superhuman as possible, or maybe of the lack of quality in yet another position for the struggling football scene in Italy, which has Juventus as its sole successful, consistent product.