Gianluigi Buffon’s agent says “it’s still early” for the Juventus goalkeeper to make a decision on his future but “he could play for another two years” if he wanted to.
The 40-year-old had been planning to retire after the 2018 World Cup, but Italy failed to qualify after losing a play-off to Sweden.
It has been rumoured in recent weeks that the Bianconeri captain was reconsidering his retirement, and his representative was coy on the situation.
Gianluigi Buffon’s agent says “it’s still early” for the Juventus goalkeeper to make a decision on his future but “he could play for another two years” if he wanted to.
The 40-year-old had been planning to retire after the 2018 World Cup, but Italy failed to qualify after losing a play-off to Sweden.
It has been rumoured in recent weeks that the Bianconeri captain was reconsidering his retirement, and his representative was coy on the situation.
“It’s still early, time will tell how he feels,” Silvano Martina shrugged, speaking to RMC Sport.
“It must be up to him, and only him, to decide. If he continues it’s because he wants to be a protagonist, not keep up appearances.
“He looks good to me, he could still play for another two years, but you need that fire inside you that drives you forward.
“After he stops with competitive activity he can decide what he wants to do. There’s a friendly relationship with the Juventus directors, he just has to decide if he wants to be involved with Juve or the national team.
“He has 1000 ideas and should be exploited to the fullest. He went to Serie B for Juventus, he received sensational offers and never demanded wage increases from the club.”
Buffon made a mistake against Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League though, is that a sign his age is catching up with him?
“Today I almost feel like you’re not in favour of players. Now you just look at an incident, you don’t consider the player overall.
“Against Tottenham he made an error that a youngster could also have made and everyone immediately spouts off, especially on social media.”
Only one goalkeeper, Lev Yashin, has ever won the Ballon d’Or and after he finished fourth for 2017 it seems likely Gigi will never win the prize.
“Sooner or later a goalkeeper will win it,” Martina predicted.
“It’s definitely very difficult in the era of [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo. Gigi has won some very important titles. but it’s clear that the Ballon d’Or has a special charm and he’s lacking it.
“That goes for [Paolo] Maldini too and other Italians.”