00:03It seems Gianluigi Buffon was always destined to don an Italian jersey.
00:09The only question was, which sport?
00:12His father was a weightlifter, his mother a discus thrower,
00:16and both his sisters played volleyball for Italy's national team.
00:23Buffon's foray into football began at Palmer's youth system at the age of 13,
00:27and despite playing as a midfielder in his younger days,
00:31he was inspired by the performance of Cameroon stopper Thomas Nkono
00:35during the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
00:40Gigi was given his chance in the net
00:42when injury forced out both of Palmer's youth team keepers.
00:48In 1995, at 17, he made his Serie A debut with Palmer,
00:54winning a Coppa Italia, Supercoppa Italiana, and a UEFA Cup.
00:58And when he crossed to Juventus in 2001,
01:01it was for a world-record transfer fee of 54 million euros.
01:07There, his legacy blossomed.
01:09He won 22 trophies, his 974 minutes,
01:14without conceding a goal in 2015 to 16 set a new Serie A record,
01:18and he was Serie A's best goalkeeper ten times,
01:22to go with two at Palmer.
01:25The match-fixing scandal that saw Juventus
01:28stripped of two Serie A titles and sent to Serie B
01:31only momentarily slowed his progress.
01:34While many stars departed without the slightest interest
01:37of slugging it out in a lower division,
01:40Buffon stuck with the club,
01:41a testament to his character.
01:46It was also during this time that he had his greatest triumph,
01:49the 2006 World Cup.
01:54Buffon bagged 40 saves,
01:57conceding just two goals for the whole tournament,
01:59an own goal from Christian Zaccato in the group stages,
02:02and a penalty from Zinedine Zidane in the final.
02:05But he spectacularly kept out a Zidane header
02:09in extra time to send the decider to penalties.
02:15Although he did not play a match at his first World Cup in 1998,
02:20Buffon equalled the record of taking part in five World Cups
02:23in Brazil 2014.
02:25He has also represented Italy
02:27in four European championships,
02:30the 1996 Olympics,
02:31and owns the record for the most Italian caps.
02:37Many believe he should have joined Russian Lev Yashin
02:40as the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d'Or.
02:44Instead, he was second behind his Italian team captain,
02:47Fabio Cannavaro.
02:50I believe it's the same as any other competition.
02:55If I did not win it,
02:56then maybe it's because I did not deserve it.
03:01I can live with that.
03:03I'm one of the things.
03:05Probably I gave my best to get it.
03:18But he was good enough for the Azzurri
03:20when it counted most in 2006.
03:24And on football's greatest stage,
03:26that is all that matters.
03:27Let's do it.
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