Gigi Buffon, Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci react to Giorgio Chiellini’s retirement and believe their former teammate will soon become a club director.
Barzagli, Bonucci and Chiellini formed the legendary BBC which helped Juventus win several domestic titles and reach two Champions League Finals between 2011 and 2020. In the 2015-16 season, they contributed to Buffon’s Serie A record for the longest run without conceding, 974 minutes.
Buffon and Barzagli retired before Chiellini so Bonucci is the only player from that legendary defence who is still playing. The former Juventus defender is contracted with Union Berlin until the end of the season.
La Gazzetta dello Sport has published messages from Buffon, Barzagli and Bonucci to their former teammate.
Juventus won seven consecutive Serie A titles with the BBC before Bonucci’s move to Milan in 2017. He returned to Turin one year later, but Buffon left for PSG, while Barzagli retired in 2019.
Barzagli
“Dear Giorgione, time passes for everyone, but memories remain. We have many, together, with Juventus and Italy. Some are nice, others painful. We won a lot and took extraordinary satisfaction. Perhaps, in 20 years time, people will still talk about Bianconeri’s winning cycle and the BBCC, which was born as a strategy to face Napoli and which, with time, became a reference point for the teammates and the Juventus world.
“It was a perfect alchemy also thanks to that super goalkeeper playing behind us, Gigi Buffon. You were always the wisest and most thoughtful of us three, while Leo was the most charismatic. I didn’t speak much as I wanted to be a silent example. We were different and complementary. United in joy and difficult moments. For years, we spent more time between us than with our families, always with two thoughts in mind: win and do not concede.
“We enjoyed it so much when we won games without conceding. It was more than a target, it was a mission. Welcome to the club of the retired, now only Leao is still on track. You enjoyed the last years more than the first ones, where you felt more pressure, which is why you always needed to talk a lot before every game. An amazing journey has ended, and now I wish you another one that can be just as exciting. You are a curious person, cultured and smart. A born football director.
Buffon
“To talk about Giorgio, to me, is like talking about a mate who has entered my heart with the simplicity of somebody similar and different at the same time. It means to talk about the eyes you need, knowing you will find courage and loyalty there. It means to talk about an extraordinary adventure, lived side by side, with the confidence of those you feel solid and loyal in good and bad times. That marvellous adventure, without us, would have had a different flavour for me.”
Bonucci
“Dear Giorgione, life is strange. We spent so much time together, and only today did I find out that the first shirt number you wore was 19! You know I believe in numbers, while you have always been sceptical about these things. We are different, everyone knows that, for so many things. And let me add: luckily! You are the diplomatic one, a perfect football director, and I hope you will prove it soon because it is your dream. I am the divisive one, the one of unpopular but necessary choices, who would raise the voice in the dressing room. We never lacked laughers between us and our families, which have been our strength. You are a friend of mine, one of the few football has given me.
“You were an example and a captain and, they say, we have made history. Let the others say it. I hope to return to working together one day in this complex world that has given us a lot. I am sad, I won’t deny it. Your retirement leaves me a void. Time is a real tyrant. We have been united by fate, with Juventus and the national team. Grown with mister Conte, we took incredible satisfaction and, as mature men, we lifted a historical cup for the Italian football movement. We will continue hanging around, that’s for sure. For the moment, outside football, then, who knows? We will keep dreaming, studying, improving, and, most of all, eating pasta! Have a good new life, Giorgione.”