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Gianluigi Buffon has been a standout performer for club and country during an illustrious two-and-a-half decade-long professional career.
The 2006 FIFA World Cup winner for Italy produced an extraordinary point-blank range save in the final to deny Zinedine Zidane as Italy went on to lift their fourth World title in a penalty shootout. Buffon conceded just two goals in seven matches in that tournament, playing a pivotal role in his country's title winning campaign following the infamous Calciopoli scandal.
The legendary keeper made his Serie A debut for Parma in 1995-96 and played there for 5 seasons before moving to Juventus in the summer of 2001-02. With the Bianconeri, Buffon won a plethora of titles during a glittering two-decade period interrupted by a season's absence when the keeper played for Paris St. Germain (2018-19).
Buffon has the most Serie A appearances of any goalkeeper and has the second most Champions League appearances of any Italian player behind AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini. Amongst a bevy of other records created by Buffon in various competitions during the course of his illustrious career, the following five stand out:
#1 Most consecutive minutes without conceding a Serie A goal
In the fourth minute of a 2015-16 Serie A game against Torino, Buffon broke the record for most consecutive minutes without conceding a Serie A goal - record set by Sebastiano Rossi (929 minutes) for AC Milan in the 1993-94 season. A second half penalty conceded to Andrea Belotti ended Buffon's record run at 974 minutes, which also included a record run of 10 consecutive clean sheets.
Buffon's 21 clean sheets in the season helped Juventus win a 5th straight Scudetto for the first time in over 8 decades. The legendary keeper in the process joined an exclusive club of players to win 7 top-flight titles.
#2 Most clean sheets in a season
Talking about clean sheets, Buffon holds the Serie A record for most clean sheets in the competition.
The Italian kept the first of his record 296 clean sheets in the Italian top-flight on his Serie A debut for Parma at the age of 17 years and 295 days, on 19 November 1995, as Parma played out a 0-0 draw with AC Milan.
The legendary keeper kept 21 clean sheets in the 2015-16 season as Juventus won 5 consecutive Scudetti for the first time since 1934-35. This marked the most clean sheets kept by a keeper in a Serie A season.
#3 First player to win 9 Serie A titles
By winning the 2017-18 Serie A title for Juventus, Buffon became the first player to win 9 top-flight titles in Italy.
Not counting the two rescinded titles (2004-05 and 2005-06), the legendary keeper won Serie A titles for Juventus in 2001-02 and 2002-03 before winning 7 in a row between 2011-12 to 2017-18.
Buffon was not a part of Juventus' 2018-19 team which won an 8th consecutive Scudetto as the keeper left Turin to play for Paris St. Germain for a season before rejoining the Bianconeri at the start of the 2019-20 season.
#4 Oldest player to keep 50 Champions League clean sheets
By appearing for Juventus in the Bianconeri's 2019-20 Matchday 6 win at Bayer Leverkusen, Buffon became the second oldest player to appear in the Champions League. Another Italian keeper, Marco Ballotta, holds the record for having played in the competition aged 43 years and 253 days.
In the process, Buffon became only the third goalkeeper in the Champions League to keep 50 clean sheets, the others being Iker Casillas (57) and Edwin van der Sar (50).
Amongst the trio, Buffon was the oldest to reach the coveted landmark.
#5 Most Serie A appearances
In his 24th season in the Italian top-flight, Buffon equaled his long-retired Italy teammate Paolo Maldini's record of most Serie A appearances (647) by starting for Juventus in a 2019-20 league game against Sampdoria.
In the Serie A, Buffon has made 478 appearances for Juventus and 179 for Parma.
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