10 most popular comparisons in modern football

#9 Gianluigi Buffon and Iker Casillas

The great goalkeepers of their generation

Enough has been said about Iker Casillas over the past month or two. The Spanish custodian and Real Madrid legend was not only shown the door by the Blancos, but was also given the cold shoulder by the supremely tactless Florentino Perez. Needless to say, an era has ended at the Bernabeu, with their beloved Sant Iker moving to FC Porto. However, another era is still going strong in the land of the Old Lady of Turin. And in the Juventus colours, Gianluigi Buffon is like fine wine, as the cliche goes.

There was a time when it was Casillas-Buffon, Petr Cech, stratosphere, and then the rest of the goalkeepers. While those days maybe long gone, one simply cannot take away what the two of them have achieved. Two absolute gentlemen of the game, they symbolized two teams who have big legacies and bigger trophy cabinets.

And there simply isn’t any way to find out the better among the two. While one lifted the World Cup in 2006, the other lifted it in the subsequent edition. When one guy hit a low with the Calciopoli scandal, the other guy peaked. When one guy started getting booed by his own fans, the other guy was still idolized by his followers. Both of them have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of what the beautiful game has to offer. And needless to say, football will be much the poorer, once its devoid of what they have to offer.