Buffon bids farewell to Juve
Goalkeeping legend not quite thinking of hanging up his gloves yet
Italy’s talismanic goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, considered by many to be the greatest-ever in his position, will play his last match for Juventus after 17 years at the club when they host Verona in Serie A tomorrow.
Yet the 40-year-old, who has won nine Serie A titles with Juventus including the last seven in a row, stopped short of announcing his retirement from the sport in a news conference yesterday.
The 2006 World Cup winner, close to tears at times, said that until two weeks ago he had been set to end his playing career, but changed his mind after receiving “very interesting” proposals.
“Saturday will be my last game for Juventus. I think it’s the best way to end this wonderful adventure,” said Buffon, who has kept 300 clean sheets in his 655 appearances for the Turin side in all competitions. “For now, I only know that Saturday I will play a game. Until a few days ago it was certain that I would stop playing. Now there are some very interesting proposals,” he said.
Buffon, who made his professional debut for Parma in 1995 before joining Juve in 2001, had planned to end his career at the 2018 World Cup, which would have been his sixth, but Italy astonishingly failed to qualify for the first time since 1958.
Unstinting loyalty
The keeper has remained remarkably loyal to the Turin side, refusing to leave them even after they were relegated to Serie B in 2006 over the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal, which also saw them stripped of a further two Serie A titles.
Buffon, who set a fashion trend during his career by becoming one of the first goalkeepers to wear short-sleeved shirts, said he would not consider playing for a lower league team.
“I am certainly not someone who thinks it is right to end my career in the third or fourth level division. I am a competitive animal and I wouldn’t be able to live or feel at ease in that situation,” he said.
Juventus won a league and cup double this season, their fourth in a row, but also suffered a bitter Champions League quarter-final exit against Real Madrid, who won with a stoppage-time penalty.
Buffon was sent off for protesting the decision and then launched a furious tirade against referee Michael Oliver and said that Uefa were right to open a disciplinary case against him. “I stepped over the line and I am extremely disappointed. If I had seen him [the referee] two days later, I would have embraced him and asked for forgiveness.”
That defeat ensured Buffon would not leave Juventus with a Champions League winners’ medal, the only major title he has never won in his career. “It has been a season with some shocking and unexpected lows but also incredible highs and, yet again, we gave an incredible response,” he said.
Orphaned at the age of 11 when his Christian pastor parents were tragically killed in a communal attack in his native Nigeria, Victor Moses was granted asylum in England and grew up there with foster parents. It was here where he caught the attention of Crystal Palace in 2001, working his way up to play for the first team at Selhurst from 2007 to 2010, and coming through the England youth ranks from 2005.
However, at the same time as leaving his second club Wigan Athletic for Chelsea in 2012, he also opted to switch allegiances and returned to represent his native Nigeria at senior level.
Teaming up with the Super Eagles and fellow Nigerian Chelsea teammate John Obi Mikel, he went on to win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and reach the Last 16 of the 2014 World Cup, equalling the country’s best ever finish in the tournament, a benchmark also achieved in 1994 and 1998. In five World Cup outings, Nigeria have now reached the last 16 three times.
His initial years at Chelsea as a rightwinger were disrupted by loan spells out to Liverpool, Stoke City and West Ham United, but in the past two seasons he has become more integrated into the side as a right wing back under Antonio Conte with whom he won the Premier League title in 2016/17.
This season hasn’t been as glorious with Chelsea failing to finish inside the top four however, and if Conte leaves and the next coach who comes in doesn’t adopt the same five at the back system — which appears to have been found out now anyway — it remains to be seen what will happen with Moses.
This World Cup will be an opportunity for him to remind whoever coaches Chelsea next season of his capabilities pushing forward, as Nigeria utilise him more as an attacker.
If the next man in at Stamford Bridge can’t find space for him going forward however, Russia will be his chance to impress other suitors, possibly ending a six-year stay at Chelsea.
With so much doubt around, he will need a good World Cup, and Nigeria’s chances of getting out of the group and bettering their last 16 best finish are fair considering they have Croatia, Iceland and Argentina in Group D before facing the winners or runners-up of Group C, which will be between France, Australia, Peru or Denmark.
He’s young, fast and powerful. He’s got everything.” John Obi Mikel | Nigeria captain
He was excellent when we beat Cameroon. The moment I saw him, I saw his talent.”
Gernot Rohr | Nigeria coach