Buffon reveals he has “signed for Barcelona”

Gianluigi Buffonlegendary former Italian goalkeeper, revealed this Tuesday in an extensive interview with the newspaper La Repubblica that before signing for Juventus in 2001 he was on the verge of becoming “a player of Rome and I will sign him too Barcelona“.

Buffon, who retired in 2023, at the age of 43, defending the Parma shirt (his first team as a professional), reviewed his career in the aforementioned interview. “The former goalkeeper said: “If I had to play again in my career, I would choose the Euro 2012 final against Spain (4-0). We didn’t deserve that result, we played exhausted” and we were the only team capable of winning in the group stage” against those of Vicente del Bosque.

In all the great games of his career, ‘Gigi’ Buffon There is one thing etched in his memory that he will play again to change it, the Euro 2012 final match Spain which he thinks might have been different if he had rested a little more. Against him Barcelona Buffon defeated in defending the cause of Juventus the final of the 2014-15 Champions League (1-3).

“I will play again Spain Italy, the final of Euro 2012. We didn’t deserve that result. “I never look for excuses, but we played a game in impossible psychophysical conditions, we were exhausted,” he said. Buffon in an interview with the Italian newspaper ‘La Repubblica’.

“If they had given us a day off, we could have played a different game, but this way we can’t do anything against a Spain which is already strong and we are the only ones who stopped it in the group stage,” he added.

The goalkeeper also spoke about his possible arrival in Barcelona: “In 2001, when I was in ParmaI would have signed him Rome. It is a matter of details. Also in Barcelona. But in the end I went Juventus“. In the 2001-02 season, the goalkeepers of the first team of Barcelona were Roberto Bonano, Pepe Reina and Richard Dutruel.

It’s been almost a year Buffon He hung up his gloves: “I’m doing well, this is what I thought. The gaps that you inevitably see when you leave from having a scheduled life for thirty years you have to try to fill the most profitable way possible and I think I’m very good at it.”

About the future, Buffoncurrently head of the Italian team delegation, it is not clear what his role will be, but he has trained in the field of sports management.

So, Buffon He stated: “Of course I want to be operational, I don’t want to be passive. I took the sports management course and then I started a master’s degree in business and administration that I will finish in May, I am thinking of working in a football club.” And the former goalkeeper, world champion with Italy in 2006, added: “Since January I have completely immersed myself in English again and I am starting to take daily courses in macroeconomics and technical analysis financially. Everything is very, very stimulating.”