Top Facts About Gianluigi Buffon

Who is Gianluigi Buffon wife? How much is Gianluigi Buffon net worth? How old is Gianluigi Buffon and has he been retired yet? What are Gianluigi Buffon best saves? What about Gianluigi Buffon Instagram? How many followers does he have on the social media platform?

These questions plus some other questions you might have about Gianluigi Buffon stats and records we’re going to answer in this post. If you’re interested in the Italian personality, then stay with us because we’re going to cover some top facts about him in this post.

Top Facts About Gianluigi Buffon You Might Not Know

We just aim to delve into some

top facts about Gianluigi Buffon

in this post, and that also concerns why Buffon is considered the best goalkeeper Italy has ever produced.

Gianluigi Buffon Childhood and Early Life

was born on January 28, 1978 in Carrara, a city located near the Carrione River in the Tuscany region of Italy. His parents were both athletes, so, there is no wonder that he was to sports at the very early age of 5. They say, at first, the young Gianluigi had a struggle to choose the sport he really liked, but then, when he was enrolled in a football academy by his parents at the age of 6, it became clear that football was the sport he settled for.

It might be interesting for you to know that Buffon did not play as a goalkeeper from the very start. He actually played as a midfielder first, and then as a striker, but finally he changed those positions for the goalkeeper post at the age of 11.

They say that change was actually inspired by his love for the then-Cameroon goalkeeper, Thomas N’Kono, who was his footballing idol. Buffon finally joined Parma youth academy in 1991 at the age of 13 and played for them as a goalkeeper for 4 years until 1995, before he was promoted to Parma’s senior team in the same year.

Gianluigi Buffon Parents and Siblings

We just talked about Gianluigi Buffon childhood but we didn’t say anything about his parents. What about Gianluigi Buffon parents and siblings? Who and what are they? Of course, we just said that both

Gianluigi Buffon parents

were athletes, but didn’t mention anything more about them. Here is a little bit more on Gianluigi Buffon parents: They are Adriano Buffon (father) and Maria Stella Buffon (mother) and both of them are former athletes.

Buffon’s mother was a discus thrower and his father a professional weightlifter who worked as a physical education teacher after his retirement. They are both of the same age and by now are 72 years old. They say they played a great part in motivating the young Gianluigi for sports, though being an athlete is by itself a motivation for one’s son!

And what about Buffon’s siblings? He has actually two sisters, named Guendalina and Veronica, who are both retired sportswomen. Guendalina is 47 years old and is a retired volleyball player who played for the Italy’s women national volleyball team during his playing time and even took part in the 1994 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship.

Veronica is 45 years old and like her sister, Guendalina, she also played volleyball as a career and in the same post: middle blocker. So you see, Gianluigi Buffon comes from a family of athletes and no wonder that he also has become a sportsman.

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Gianluigi Buffon Age and Height

As for how old Gianluigi Buffon is, we should say he was born on January 28, 1978 and is by now 42 but not yet retired. He’s currently the first goalkeeper of the Serie A club,

; the club which he served the most during his career - actually for 17 years.

If you consider the goalkeepers who are taller than 1.90m as tall, then we should say Buffon is a tall goalkeeper. He’s 1.92m tall and weighs 92kg. That means he’s also a slim type and has no extra weight as he really shouldn’t have!

As we already mentioned,

Gianluigi Buffon age

is 42, but it seems as far as this goalkeeper is fit, he doesn’t like to retire. And frankly speaking, that shouldn’t be so. Why is a goalkeeper who is most importantly a highly-experienced one, too, should retire when he’s still fit?

Gianluigi Buffon Stats

An integral part of our top facts about Gianluigi Buffon is concerned with his stats. Gianluigi Buffon is a product of the Serie A club,

. He actually played for their youth academy between 1991 and 1995 and then as a senior player he served them for six years between 1995 and 2001 making 168 appearances for them only at league level.

However, the club that Buffon has served the most is Juventus. As mentioned above, Buffon served Juventus for 17 years between 2001 and 2018 and during this time made 509 appearances for them, again only at league level.

And after a short spell with PSG in 2018-19 season, Buffon is again serving his beloved club, Juventus; actually from 2019 on. So in total, Buffon has served Juventus for almost 19 years. As for

Gianluigi Buffon stats

concerning his appearances, we should say the top Italian goalkeeper has made a total of 919 appearances across all competitions and for the three clubs he served during his career, namely Parma, PSG, and Juventus.

From among all the 919 appearances Buffon has made, 706 have been made at league level, 36 in cup, 166 in European, and 11 in other competitions. And from all the 706 appearances that Buffon has made at league level, the three clubs he has served during his career, namely Parma, PSG, Juventus, get a share of 168, 17, and 521 appearances respectively which translates to 24%, 2% and 74% of all the league appearances that Buffon has made, again respectively.

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Buffon is number one on the list of

with the 296 clean sheets that he has collected with the two Italian clubs, Parma and Juventus. However, in general, he has collected more; actually 411 clean sheets across all competitions in the overall 919 appearances that he has made during his career.

That actually gets him a clean-sheet-to-appearance ratio of 0.44 which means the top Italian goalkeeper has collected a little bit more than 3 clean sheets (exactly 3.08) in every 7 appearances that he has made during his career.

And how many goals Buffon has conceded so far in his career? The answer is 767 which based on the number of total appearances that he has made until now (919) gets him a goals-conceded-to-appearance ratio of 0.83. That means the top Italian goalkeeper has conceded almost 5 goals (exactly 4.98) in every 6 appearances that he has made in his career.

And delving more into Gianluigi Buffon stats, we should tell you that Buffon has scored no goals during his career but one and that is the own goal he scored in the 50th minute in a

match against Roma in January 2020, should you count, indeed, the own goals a player has scored toward his overall goals. Buffon has also received 5 red and 15 yellow cards and has been substituted off the pitch 15 times during his career.

Gianluigi Buffon Awards and Achievements

The Italian goalkeeper with the most number of individual awards - actually more than 50, Gianluigi Buffon has also won a number of club trophies with the three clubs he has served during his career: Parma, PSG, and Juventus; actually more than 20 and as you might guess most of these trophies he has won with the club he has served the most: Juventus (23 out of 28).

But back to Buffon’s individual awards, as we mentioned above, the top Italian goalkeeper has won more than 50 individual awards to this date which is more than any other Italian goalkeeper and is one of the highest compared to the number of individual awards other top world top goalkeepers have won, if not the highest.

The most notable award Buffon has won in terms of the number is the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year. He has won the award for 12 years between 1999 and 2017 three of which have been consecutive - actually from 2015 to 2017.

The other notable individual awards Buffon has won are UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year in 2002-03 and 2016-17 seasons, Best European Goalkeeper in 2003, 2016, and 2017, Serie A Footballer of the Year in 2016-17 season, Best FIFA Goalkeeper in 2017 and Golden Foot in 2016. He has also one of the top footballer named on FIFA 100 list by the Brazilian legend, Pele.

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Gianluigi Buffon Records

In terms of the number of records set Gianluigi Buffon is one of the goalkeepers in the world with the most number of records to his name, if not the only one. He has set more than 60 records to this date some of which belongs only to him and some of which he shares with other top goalkeepers in the world.

Almost a third of these records are the ones Buffon has set concerning the number of appearances he has made in international or club football and then a notable number of them are those he has set concerning the number of clean sheets he has collected.

Some of the top records Buffon has set are the most number of appearances in Serie A with 652 appearances, the longest time played for Juventus in all competitions (58863 minutes which translates to almost 1000 hours), most clean sheets in a single

season which actually happened in 2011-12 and 2015-16 seasons where Buffon managed to collect 21 clean sheets throughout the season, most clean sheets with the Italian national team (77), longest consecutive run without conceding a goal in a single Serie A season which actually happened in 2015-16 season where Buffon did not concede a goal for 974 minutes - almost 11 matches without a goal conceded, and the longest consecutive run without conceding a goal in UEFA Championship qualifying stages which happen in 2010-11 season where Buffon did not concede a goal for 644 consecutive minutes.

Gianluigi Buffon Best Saves

Other than the number of records a goalkeeper has set and the number of awards and trophies he has won both individual and with clubs, a goalkeeper is also best known for his top saves, and regarding this Gianluigi Buffon is no exception.

What are

Gianluigi Buffon best saves

? Of course, this greatly depends one ones’ taste and is not only the case with Gianluigi Buffon but also with other top goalkeepers, however, some saves are so good and so nicely made that they are always remembered. So, based on this criterion, what are Gianluigi Buffon best saves?

Here are some of Gianluigi Buffon best saves:

• The incredible save Buffon made in a friendly against Paraguay in 1998

It was almost a goal. The ball was on its way to the back of the net that somehow in some way Buffon’s hand got the ball out of the bag. Just the reaction of the Paraguayan forward who sent the ball toward the crossbar showed that he couldn’t even believe he couldn’t score.

• Euro 2016, quarter finals, Italy vs Germany

Buffon made an amazing save from close range and parried a shot from Mario Gomez only from a short distance of 4 yards. Despite the great saves Buffon made in that game, Italy lost the game 6-5 to Germany in penalty shootouts.

• 2015 UEFA Champions League Final, Juventus vs Barcelona

Buffon can even make a save if he goes the wrong way! And that’s what he proved in the 2015 Champions League final against

with the save he made against Aleix Vidal’s shot. He first went the wrong way but managed to tap the ball with his opposite hand.

• 2003 Champions League Final, Juventus vs AC Milan

A quick goalkeeper is an asset, and again that’s what Buffon proved in the 2003 Champions League Final against AC Milan. Flippo Inzaghi fired a headed shot at goal at 17th minute just to be parried away by Buffon’s quick reflex. The shot was so quick and devastating that even one’s eye could hardly follow it let alone saving it. But don’t forget, that’s Buffon’s magic to stop such shots!

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Gianluigi Buffon Net Worth

So far we have covered some top facts about Gianluigi Buffon sports life, but let’s get a little bit more into his personal life, too. The first question that may come to your mind is that how much is

Gianluigi Buffon net worth

? The straightforward answer is $20 million.

But did you know that Buffon is also the most expensive goalkeeper in the world? Juventus sjust bought Buffon from Parma in 2001 for an estimated amount of $62.9 million which has not been exceeded by any other goalkeeper’s contract worth to this date.

Well, just about

Gianluigi Buffon salary

, we should say he earns a weekly total of $85k which translates to a monthly salary of $320k and an annual salary of around $4 million that sums up to $5 million if you also count in the bonuses he receives on his contract. They say Buffon has a house worth of $2 million in his homeland, Carrara, and has also a collection of luxury cars including a Maserati, a Ford, and an Audi.

If you think the salary Buffon receives is his only source of income, you’re wrong. Buffon is a businessman too. He was actually the sole shareholder of his hometown club, Carrarese, and kept his shares until the end of 2014-15 season when he decreased them to 70%. The club, however, went bankrupt in early 2016.

Buffon was also a member of the board of directors of the Italian textile company, Zucchi Group S.p.A, and sometime in 2015 had 56% of the company’s shares. He also helped the company prevent bankruptcy by investing around $24 million in the same year.

The top Italian goalkeeper had also his own brand of wine, named Buffon #1, sometime in 2017, and has also featured in Pepsi, Ferrarelle - an Italian mineral water brand, and PokerStars ads endorsing their products.

Gianluigi Buffon Wife

So, who is

Gianluigi Buffon wife

? Has Buffon dated other girls than his wife? The answer is yes. Before his current wife, Ilaria D'Amico, Buffon dated a Czech model and actress named Alena Seredova. They actually got married in June 2011, but their two sons, namely Louis Thomas Buffon, and David Lee Buffon, were given birth during the time they dated each other with the former born in December 2007 and the latter in November 2009.

Buffon and Seredova’s  marriage only lasted for 3 years; actually until May 2014 that they divorced. Since then the couple have each dated a different person: Gianluigi Buffon dated Ilaria D'Amico who is a television host and commentator, and Alena Seredova Alessandro Nasi who is an Italian Businessman.

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As for Ilaria D'Amico, we should say she’s 5 years older than Buffon - she’s actually 47 years old - and just like Buffon’s previous date, Alena Seredova, she also had her child with Buffon before she was officially married to him. Their son, Leopoldo Mattia, was actually born in January 2016, while the couple got married in 2017.

So, based on what we said above about

Gianluigi Buffon children

, you should probably know by now that the top Italian goalkeeper has three sons two of whom he has had with his first date, Alena Seredova, and one of whom with his current wife, Ilaria D'Amico. And how old are Gianluigi Buffon children? Based on the date they have been born, we can say Louis Thomas is 13, David Lee is 11, and Leopoldo Mattia is 4 years old.

Gianluigi Buffon Social Media Accounts

In fact, if we are to top

facts about Gianluigi Buffon

in this post, we should never overlook his social media accounts. That’s what we are going to cover now. We mean we’ll let you know now about

,

, and

accounts.

Well, as for Gianluigi Buffon Instagram account, we should tell you that he has 9.5 million followers on the social media platform and has posted 773 photos and videos till now.

On Facebook Buffon has more than 9 million followers and more than 5 million likes, and on Twitter he has less followers than Instagram and Facebook but has posted more - at least more than his Instagram. He has 3.4 million followers on Twitter and has posted 3833 tweets to this date (December 12, 2020).

The interesting fact about Buffon Facebook and Twitter accounts is that he has created them both in the same year (2012) unlike many other celebrities that there is a gap of a few years between the time they created their social media accounts - in fact not all of them. And no Twitter, Buffon has gained something around 60k more followers from 6 months before till now.

The number of his followers on the social media platform has arisen from 3,425k to 3,488k in the time period mentioned above. Also it is noteworthy here to mention that Buffon also mentioned Paolo Rossi’s death by sending a post on Facebook, as you see in the photo above, but not on Twitter or Instagram.

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Gianluigi Buffon Retirement

As for

Gianluigi Buffon retirement

, we already mentioned in this post that he’s not yet retired and is currently playing for the club he served the most during his career, Juventus. However, he has experienced one football retirement and that is his retirement from international football which occurred in May 2018.

In fact, Gianluigi Buffon retirement happened sooner in 2017 when Italy failed to qualify for 2018 World Cup, however, since he appeared for the Italian national team in a few friendlies in the following year, his actual and indeed official retirement from international football occurred in the same year (2018). We mean after that he didn’t appear for the Italian national team any more.

Fast Facts About Gianluigi Buffon

Here are some fast

facts about Gianluigi Buffon

:

• Gianluigi Buffon is the most capped Italian footballer to this date with 176 caps.

• Gianluigi Buffon is the second most capped European footballer and the seventh most capped footballer in the world.

• Gianluigi Buffon was elected as the Italian Footballers Association vice-president in 2012.

• Gianluigi Buffon is not a sociable person. He said once to Football Italia: "I love to stay at home, read my fans mails and play on my Playstation.”

• Despite all the trophies and awards Gianluigi Buffon has won, he has not still won a UEFA Champions League title which still remains a dream for him - his best shot at UEFA Champions League is finishing runner-up with Juventus in three editions of the European competition.

• Gianluigi Buffon has two nicknames: Gigi and Superman

• Gianluigi Buffon’s zodiac sign is aquarius, his Chinese zodiac is snake, and his birth element is fire.

• Gianluigi Buffon is catholic by faith and Christian by religion.

• Gianluigi Buffon risked a four-year prison sentence for counterfeiting a high school accounting degree in order to enroll for a university course in the same field. He wasn’t prisoned but paid €3500 in fine.

• Gianluigi Buffon was also accused of illegal betting on Serie A matches in May 2006 which actually threatened his position at the Italian national team for 2006 World Cup.

All these facts about Gianluigi Buffon show that not only he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the history of football but also he has had a turbulent life with ups and downs, but fortunately, mostly ups rather than downs!

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