Gianluigi Buffon claims his career would have taken a very different turn had he accepted an offer to join AC Milan when he was younger. The goalkeeper started his career at Parma, where he joined the club’s academy at the age of 13.
A goalkeeping coach changed Buffon’s career
After excelling with the northern Italian club, whom he helped win the UEFA Cup in 1999, Buffon went on to an illustrious career with Juventus and Italy, winning 10 Serie A titles and world Cup. Back in Parma, the iconic goalkeeper admits his life would have taken a different trajectory had he been lured to the San Siro by Milan.
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Instead, he opted to join Parma to team up with goalkeeping coach Ermes Fulgoni. “Ermes decided to turn my life upside down, he was the one who brought me here”, he told students at the La Salle Institute. “When I was little, in my head, until May, I had almost decided to go and play for Milan, then I came to Parma for a trial and I remember that when I arrived, I I was contaminated by Ermes’ enthusiasm, his determination and his cheerfulness which made me change my mind“.
“Parma has always been part of me”
“If I hadn’t met him, my sporting life would have been different, but not much better than the one I lived. This means that you sometimes have to surrender to the sensations and emotions that certain people give you. That day he mesmerized me and struck me, because he had a way of involving me, a way of working that I had never seen before and that thrilled me. This was the decisive factor in my choice of Parma“, added the Italian doorman.
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