Italy and Juventus legend Gianluigi Buffon defends his compatriot Gianluigi Donnarumma and believes that Karim Benzema’s challenge would have been a foul in Italy.
The veteran goalkeeper commented on Donnarumma’s mistake against Real Madrid in an interview with Il Corriere dello Sport.
“Errors like that are useful to grow up, they are part of a developing process and I am sure it will have no negative impact because Donnarumma has already proved to have the strength to overcome the difficult moments,” the Parma goalkeeper said.
“He is too solid to be affected by all this. Gigio is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, one of the top three with Thibaut Courtois and Manuel Neuer.”
PSG director Leonardo and president Nasser Al-Khelaifi were furious because they saw a foul of Karim Benzema on the Italian goalkeeper, what’s Buffon’s view?
“I want to be very honest, that would have been a foul in Italy. Perhaps after a VAR check. As a goalkeeper, I would be furious. On the other hand, Real Madrid players would have gone mad had the referee blown the whistle.
“I can add that, if Gigio remained on the ground, he would have obtained something else. We’ve seen many players doing that, but he was honest. He sent a message to the referee by getting up immediately, ‘the contact was irrelevant.’
“Errors are normals, Gigio can still give a lot. It’s a mistake that can’t lead to questioning the player’s value. One or two mistakes per season are physiological,” Buffon continued.
“Gigio made an unpopular choice [by joining PSG] which must be respected. He wanted to fuel his ambition, something that many didn’t like. They are the same people who were waiting for his mistake.
“The problem is not the French who are enjoying it, but the Italians who were waiting for that.”
Hahahahahah
for me as AC Milan fan, i feel like Milan beat PSG not Real Madrid
thank you benzema!!
I think he (Buffon) gave too much unnecessary suggestion to Gigio. Starting from luring Gigio to move to PSG where else Gigio could become legend at Milan and not their public enemy. And I’m quite sure he (Buffon) will also suggest Gigio to move to Juve later.
Seems to be a lot of hate towards donnarumma. He was incredible in the euros, the first goal was debatable foul, it wasn’t a poor save or an own goal.
He left Milan and everyone should get over it, what does staying in Italy do for your career? Unless you join Juve.
Inter aren’t stable, managerial changes ownership changes, selling players. Milan have been off the beat for years. You need consistency to be a club of elite level. And only Juve have had that over a sustained period.
He should have maybe considered juve but Jorginho, verratti get more recognition outside of serie a.
Donnarumma is earning more money than many could dream of and living every young man’s dream, does he care about keyboard warriors slating and hating on him, no.
He’s young and will go onto win many trophies.
@rabbb, the problem is AC Milan didn’t beat PSG because they can’t get beyond the group stages!
@julian, AC fans need to get over the fact that he left. He would never have been a legend at AC.
Poor Milan fans in here, apparently errors by Donnarumma are the only things that make you happy.
@homer oh for sure Milan fans are already get over it.. they’ve got an upgrade goalie now.. it is just a pity to see Gigio took such a brave decisions and not really working well for him.
@dio well maybe your statement is true regarding career in Italy and Juve, but that is because only Juve has their own stadium to generate more profit so they can afford to spend more money for players.. but that decade when Juve conquer Serie A was also the darkest period of Italian football because no Italian club have ever won any european competition.. don’t mention Juve reaching the UCL final because at the end they still lose..
also, Gigio was incredible in euro because he played regularly in the league before, at PSG we already know the case..
“He was honest”
Yes, he should’ve lied like Buffon did when Muntari scored a good goal some years back.
@Julian the darkest period of italian football you said? it’s because no italian clubs other than Juve had performed acceptably in Europe. You all should blame yourselves. Juve was the only italian club which was still raising italian football flag in Europe while other italian clubs were all (and still) busy witch-hunting at Juve.