The word ‘legend’ is so overused in the world of football these days. Last night, Celtic paid tribute to their very one legend in James Forrest and no one can deny that the Celtic winger is a legend at the club.
And today, a truly global legend of the game, Gianluigi Buffon announced that after an incredible 32 years in football, the Juventus icon as announced he is officially retiring from the game.
Buffon took to social media to make the announcement and posted a montage of various career highlights on Instagram with a short caption.
The message read, “That’s all folks! You gave me everything. I gave you everything. We did it together.”
Global football stars such as Paolo Dybala, Ivan Rakitic and another footballing legend, Lilian Thuram, amongst other stars and footballing media all flocked to Buffon’s Instagram to respond to his announcement.
Joe Hart has a long and distinguished connection with Buffon through his own career and he left a very simple but very apt reply as he paid his own tribute to the legendary goalkeeper
Hart has faced Buffon on numerous occasions over his career. The Celtic keeper faced Buffon twice during his time at Torino in the Serie A.
He has also come up against Buffon in Europe whilst at Man City in the Champions League and the Europa League. At all times. Incredibly, Hart has never been on the winning side. All ties were against Juventus.
Hart has also faced Buffon on international duty with England. In Euro 2012, Hart had to endure penalty heartache as Italy knocked England out at the quarter-final stage.
In the 2014 World Cup, the Celtic keeper again found himself on the wrong end of an international result as Italy beat England 2-1 in the group stages.
Buffon’s career has seen the ‘keeper pick up nine Serie A titles, six Coppa Italia and seven Italian Super Cups. Incredibly, he has been a runner-up in the Champions League three times in his career but did win the UEFA Cup with Parma in 1999.
And to cap it all off, Buffon also has a World Cup winners medal to his name.
World football will always remember Buffon as one of the best, if not the best goalkeeper of all time.
In other news, Decision beckons for Celtic as clubs enquire about Ismaila Soro
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