Gianluigi Donnarumma confessed Gigi Buffon urged him to join Paris Saint-Germain, but is now just following the same footsteps in Champions League failure.
Italy international Donnarumma hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons last night after he was caught in possession by Karim Benzema, sparking the Real Madrid comeback to win 3-1, securing their place in the quarter-final 3-2 on aggregate.
It is a painfully familiar scenario for PSG, the club most obsessed with winning the Champions League and yet getting no closer to that aim, regardless of how many big names they put together.
Donnarumma’s experience also worryingly mirrors that of his Italy international mentor Buffon, because while they had completely different ages and levels of experience, both goalkeepers made costly howlers in that PSG jersey.
In March 2019, PSG had won the first leg 2-0 against Manchester United and were playing on home turf at Parc des Princes, but Buffon and his teammates were if anything too confident.
“I still think about that night three or four times a week,” confessed Buffon last year.
“I blame myself for an incredible mistake, one that with my experience I really should not have made. Mentally, that night, I could feel my concentration was not at the usual level.
“I didn’t have the strength to realise we were going into the game too confident, I wasn’t the old man in the locker room who shouts at everyone telling them to wake up.
“I was so sure that year we were going into the Final.”
The Champions League is famously the only major trophy that has eluded Buffon in his career, but while he has plenty of experience, the same cannot be said of Donnarumma.
The 23-year-old was participating in only his fifth Champions League game ever, and while he won EURO 2020 over the summer with Italy, he has practically no European pedigree at club level.
With the Azzurri, Gigio was surrounded by a solid squad with great unity, not something anyone can say about Paris Saint-Germain and its collection of ill-suited stars.