Gianluigi Buffon is an Italian soccer legend. At 43 he is still active in Parma, after half his life at Juventus and his time at PSG, the great French giant. In an interview that collects La Gazzetta dello Sport He opens up about some past aspects of his career and gives an informed opinion on the current situation at Juventus.
“In February 2018 I had decided to quit because I was thinking of reaching the World Cup and I wanted to close the circle with that. I told my agent that I wanted to resign unless someone from Real Madrid, Barcelona and PSG called me. And after twenty days the call came. At that time it seemed a shame to give up a similar experience, in a similar club and with an economic offer as important as that, “reveals Buffon.
Paris has been the destination of another Italian goalkeeper, Gigio Donnarumma. On the decision of the goalkeeper of the Italian team he does not hesitate, he was right: “I think Gigio made a more than justified decision. This season he is having some difficulties, but I think he will start in the near future.”
Four years after that call from PSG, Buffon continues and does so thinking about next year’s World Cup, after the 2018 World Cup went wrong by failing to qualify. Now Italy will have to earn their participation in the play-off. Despite that, recognizes that the World Cup in Qatar is a motivation to continue. That and ascend with Parma: Buffon has always talked about the dream of going to Qatar as fuel to move on: “This is the excuse to keep playing. But now the road is uphill, this selection runs the risk of ending up like Ventura’s (the coach who directed the azzurra when the debacle of being left out of the 2018 World Cup happened): “There are similarities, the difference is that this selection has more certainty also by virtue of the unexpected success in the European Championship. And when you are certain it is easier to overcome difficult moments. “And he analyzed the draw with Sweden:” That was the prelude to a team that would not have been successful. We made mistakes and we had too big mistakes that did not allow us to go to the World Cup. The faults belong to everyone, I have always said it. When you fail, everyone does, the staff, the coach and all the players. “
On the current Juventus and on which he had to live: “Juve does not play badly. When Juve wins, they do so as a solid, compact team that leaves no space and therefore makes the game ugly. Our Juve, who reached the Champions League final twice, was solid, then they did not win because they played against Barcelona and Real Madrid four times better than us. But without those characteristics we would never have reached the final. “
He also recognized the difficulties involved in leading that team: “For Sarri it was disheartening to mediate, Pirlo did not fail. I was close to Atalanta then … He convinced me.” Regarding Pirlo’s relationship with Cristiano, he said: “If Ronaldo was no longer convinced that he was staying, he was right to leave. And Allegri was right to come back because you can see that he is convinced that he is doing it. “
