epa10839774 Head of Italy Delegation Gianluigi Buffon attends a press conference near Florence, Florence, Italy, 04 September 2023. Italy faces North Macedonia and Ukraine in UEFA EUO qualification matches on 09 and 12 September. EPA-EFE/CLAUDIO GIOVANNINI
Gigi Buffon reveals the most back-handed compliments he received from Marcello Lippi and Max Allegri, why being in goal was ‘a superpower’ and that 2006 World Cup moment with Zinedine Zidane. ‘I was the VAR.’
The legendary Italy star was presenting his new book at an event in Turin and took questions from reporters, covering his career highs and lows.
You can read some more of his comments here.
“The theme of the book is that goalkeeping is a metaphor for life. You fall, get back up, fall, get back up. There are always going to be falls, but the important thing is finding the motivation to get back up again,” said Buffon.
The highlight of his career was winning the 2006 World Cup with Italy in a penalty shoot-out against France, but it was a night tinged with bitterness because of Zidane’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi.
In the age before VAR was introduced, Buffon saw it live and rushed over to tell the referee what he had witnessed, prompting the fourth official to confirm the red card offence.
“At that moment, I was the VAR,” he laughed.
“My reaction and my run towards the area where it happened made sure that the referees realised what had transpired. They will never admit it, of course, but they saw it back on the television monitors. I was the only one who saw everything that happened in real time.”
Buffon was also in the Italy squad that crashed out early of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, with the ill-advised return to the role of coach Lippi.
“I was injured, so I got back into the dressing room and saw everyone distraught, with their heads in their hands. The coach arrived, he was calm, but detached. ‘Lads,’ he said. ‘It is not your fault, it is my fault that like an idiot I brought you here.’ I will admit, I went and hid in the shower so I could laugh at that.”
Throughout his career, SuperGigi was known for his ebullient personality, so this came with a propensity to whip up the crowd, even from his debut for Parma as a teenager against Milan.
“I was young, irreverent, very confident in myself, but also smart. I went to sleep on the team bus. I realised my teammates were adults, champions, so they needed to know that I could be trusted and the only way I knew to do that was to reassure them. I tried to reassure them rather than calm myself,” explained Buffon.
“In those final minutes of matches, you get to feel the passion of the crowd and it draws you in too on the field. You realise the moment of suspense, the cheer for a save, or the joy for a goal. The ability to change the mood of so many people in an instant is a superpower I discovered that I had.”
The goalkeeper worked with some of the greats in his career and also faced some iconic coaches, such as Brescia boss and ready wit Carlo Mazzone, plus ex-Juventus tactician Allegri.
“I saved absolutely everything against Brescia. I got into the dressing room and Mazzone was there with the face of a man who wanted revenge. As soon as I went past, he said: ‘What did you do to me today? You seemed like Lazarus, you kept rising back up.’
“Allegri said to me that my greatest strength was my tendency to experience everything with a total state of recklessness. Every now and then I think about that and feel maybe he was right,” noted Buffon.
His first major trophy was winning the UEFA Cup with Parma in 1999, but that too was not entirely a joyful experience.
“At that time it was worth almost as much as the Champions League, but I didn’t like that it was played in Moscow, this enormous stadium with very few people in there.”
