Gianluigi Buffon set a Serie A record with 648th appearance
Gianluigi Buffon set a new Serie A appearance record on Saturday as the 42-year-old goalkeeper played his 648th Italian top-flight match in Juventus' game against Torino.
Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon set a stunning Serie A record with his 648th appearance in Italy's top flight on Saturday.
The former World Cup winner passed the previous record of 647 appearances held by AC Milan great Paolo Maldini.
The Turin derby game against Torino took the 42-year-old Buffon one step ahead of AC Milan great Paolo Maldini, who set a record in 2009. Buffon matched this record against Sampdoria on 18 December.
Buffon, who spent last season at French club Paris Saint-Germain before rejoining Juve this term, signed a one-year contract extension earlier this week.
This is the eighth Serie A appearance for Button, with Polish international Wojciech Szczesny generally the defending champion' number one.
This was Buffon's 915th club match as a professional, expanding his record to an Italian player.
The majority of those matches have come for Juventus. Buffon joined the Bianconeri in 2001 after starting his career with Parma and quickly established himself as one of the world's best goalkeepers.
He was expected to retire at the end of the 2017-18 season but instead made a surprise move to Paris Saint-Germain, where he won the French league to add to his multiple titles. He caused even more of a stir when he joined Juventus the following year.
Buffon recently extended his contract for another season.
He can join his impressive medal collection with Juventus at the 10th Serie A title, with a four-point advantage at the top of the table.
The record comes 25 years after Buffon made his Serie A debut for Pharma and 19 years later he signed for Juventus for the first time.
The truth is that Im still playing because Im feeling good, Im competitive and also because I know I can get better, Buffon said during a live interview on Instagram on Thursday.
Two other titles were snatched from the club due to the Calciopoli scandal. As a punishment, Juventus were relegated to Serie B, but Buffon stayed on to help them win the second division and bounce straight up.
He also won the World Cup with Italy in 2006 and the UEFA Cup in 1999 with Parma.
One of the few trophies missing from Buffon's stunning collection is the Champions League. He lost three finals in that competition with Juventus.
When you have room for improvement, you have that fire inside which means you are not satisfied with yourself.
He also holds the record for the most performance with the Italian national team of 176, although he retired from international duty in 2018 after his failure to qualify for the World Cup in Russia.
