Gianluigi Buffon discusses his upcoming 600th appearance for Juventus – “I’m glad someone is counting…”
The goalkeeper has played 599 competitive games for the Bianconeri since moving from Parma for a world-record fee in 2001, and will reach the milestone in the Supercoppa Italiana tomorrow.
“I’m glad someone is counting for me,” Buffon smiled in the pre-match Press conference.
Gianluigi Buffon discusses his upcoming 600th appearance for Juventus – “I’m glad someone is counting…”
The goalkeeper has played 599 competitive games for the Bianconeri since moving from Parma for a world-record fee in 2001, and will reach the milestone in the Supercoppa Italiana tomorrow.
“I’m glad someone is counting for me,” Buffon smiled in the pre-match Press conference.
“I’m definitely happy, I don’t think it’ll be my last and it won’t be my last. There’s still a little something to give, starting tomorrow where there’s a trophy to be won.
“Like all trophies, like all one-off matches and finals, we’ll do everything to get the final victory.
“The motivation is the same, in the sense that we know we’re competing in the final, a match where you get no do-overs, so that ensures the motivation is very high.
“Beyond that I have a good relationship with the Supercoppa Italiana, I often think back to when we lost here to Napoli and it still burns.
“So everything leads me to approach this match to try and honour it and do everything to win.”
Buffon then spoke about tomorrow’s opponents, Coppa Italia runners-up Milan.
“They’re definitely very dangerous, we really respect Milan because we’ve already lost to them at San Siro this season.
“Even in recent years, where we’ve taken all three points more often than not, they’ve always caused us problems, so we have high levels of respect and alertness, because you don’t want to waste these opportunities.”
The Juve captain was asked about Qatar, given the Old Lady lost to Napoli there and the country will host the 2022 World Cup.
“I haven’t thought about losing twice in a row, it being the same place doesn’t change much,” Buffon insisted.
“It’s a good thing not to get used to defeat and instead get used to winning. As far as the World Cup in 2022 goes, it will be something extraordinary and completely different to what we’re used to.
“It’s also true that the world is evolving and chances have to be given to those who have the strength, energy and innovation to a higher quality and possibly better product.
“Clearly we’ll look at it at the end and see whether or not it’s a success. The potential is there though.
“Playing Serie A games here? I think in the end we’re uniting sport and business and sport and show more and more.
“So when you want to sell a spectacular product commercially, it’s normal that you should have characters that arouse interest elsewhere, then you have to ensure highly competitive teams with recognisable and recognised players.
“Basically this is the direction of every sport, not just football. We’ve seen with the NFL that for three or four years they’ve been playing a game or two in London, altering the revenue they were used to.
“It’s also true though that if you take things too far away there’s nothing really tangible, and you reduce what your product is worth.”