Gianluigi Buffon will play his 656th and final game for Juventus this afternoon, as the Bianconeri celebrate their seventh Scudetto in a row against Verona.
The goalkeeper joined the Old Lady in 2001 for €52m, which remains a world record fee for a goalkeeper.
Plenty has happened in the intervening 17 years…
Gianluigi Buffon will play his 656th and final game for Juventus this afternoon, as the Bianconeri celebrate their seventh Scudetto in a row against Verona.
The goalkeeper joined the Old Lady in 2001 for €52m, which remains a world record fee for a goalkeeper.
Plenty has happened in the intervening 17 years…
Buffon’s first Champions League game for Juventus was a 3-2 win over Celtic on September 18 2001. That match was postponed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and Gigi has played 115 games since then.
There have been four World Cups since Buffon joined the Bianconeri and he’s played in all of them, winning it in 2006. This summer’s tournament will be the first he hasn’t been involved in since 1998.
The first Harry Potter movie was released on November 4 2001. There have been seven since then, as well as a spin-off series and a stage show.
American rock band Fall Out Boy formed in 2001, releasing four albums before taking a hiatus in 2008. They’ve since reformed and released two albums.
There have been seven Prime Ministers of Italy since Gianluigi Buffon signed for Juventus: Silvio Berlusconi [twice], Romano Prodi, Mario Monti, Enrico Letta, Matteo Renzi and Paolo Gentiloni. The March election resulted in a hung parliament, so there could well be an eighth before Buffon leaves Juve.
Buffon signed for Juventus 11 days before the release of the first Fast and the Furious film. The ninth entry in the franchise is currently in production.
On October 16 2001, Michael Jackson reissued Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad and Dangerous, to celebrate his thirtieth anniversary as a solo musician. Buffon has been playing senior football for 23 years.
None of the Juventus squad which Buffon joined in 2001 is still playing – Igor Tudor is Udinese Coach, Antonio Conte is Chelsea manager and Pavel Nedved is Juve Vice-President.
Claudio Marchisio is the second longest-serving Bianconeri player in the current squad. He was a 15-year-old youth player when Buffon signed from Parma.