One hundred billion lire. Fifty-two million Euros. £32.5 million. Whichever way you write it, whatever your currency of choice, Juventus handed Serie A rivals Parma a lot of money on this date back in 2001. They did so to sign Gianluigi Buffon, a player who – despite being just 23-years-old at the time – had already established himself as one of Europe’s most talented goalkeepers with a lengthy list of team and individual honours to his name.
It was a bold move, one that came as part of a revolutionary summer for La Vecchia Signora and that obliterated the club’s transfer record. Before signing the Italy international, the highest fee she had previously paid was the £19.55 million AS Monaco received for David Trezeguet just twelve months earlier, and Juventus only broke that record this past summer when they signed Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli.
Yet signing Buffon was arguably the best money the Bianconeri ever spent, acquiring a club captain, a genuinely authoritative presence in the dressing room and a truly outstanding goalkeeper who has few rivals even now, some 16 seasons after the deal was completed.
But the Gigi Buffon who arrived for pre-season training that summer was a very different man to the one who stands between the posts today. As can be seen in the video above, he was fresh-faced, long-haired and awkwardly shy, but he was also a player who had repeatedly been caught up in controversy.
Back in September 1999 he was spotted wearing a t-shirt with the fascist slogan "Boia chi molla" – Death to cowards – before then choosing squad number 88 ahead of the 2000/01 campaign. Italy's Jewish community pointed out that the figure is a neo-Nazi symbol as "H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet, so 88 equates to HH, or Heil Hitler. Buffon called a press conference to explain that instead it “reminds me of four balls and in Italy we all know what it means to have balls: strength and determination.”
He would relent and wear 77, but while there was no such issue at Juventus – he was immediately given the No.1 shirt – life with the Bianconeri did not begin as smoothly as one might expect. Luciano Moggi had grown tired of watching the team fall short in previous seasons and seized the opportunity to sell Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid for a world-record fee, simultaneously making huge profits on Pippo Inzaghi and Edwin Van der Sar.
That gave the Director General huge funds to rebuild the team, while also creating space for under-used striker David Trezeguet. Alongside Buffon, Pavel Nedved, Lilian Thuram and Marcelo Salas arrived, but it would be the goalkeeper who struggled most to adapt to the pressure that came with his huge transfer fee.
In the third match of 2001/02 against Chievo, Buffon would fumble a routine corner that allowed Massimo Marazzina to tap home and saw the Juve man lambasted in the press. That would intensify after further mistakes against Hellas Verona and in the derby with Torino, but his mental toughness would then come to the fore and see him slowly reestablish his brilliance between the posts.
On a thrilling final day of action the Bianconeri would eventually lift the title, with Buffon going on to taste Scudetto glory four times in his first five seasons with the club. He would also feature in the 2003 Champions League final at Old Trafford, his excellent display in the penalty shootout still not enough to prevent AC Milan emerging victorious.
Then came Calciopoli and the 2006 World Cup, Buffon winning the latter before deciding that the fallout of the former – which saw Juventus relegated to Serie B – would not force him to leave the club. Enjoying an incredible year in the second tier, he would claim a winner’s medal there too before enduring some lean seasons as the Bianconeri struggled to compete following their return to the top flight.
Eventually of course they have risen again to dominate the Italian football landscape, Buffon becoming skipper following the retirement of Alessandro Del Piero and he is now part of a side that has set a new record with six consecutive Serie A titles.
That will ultimately be his lasting legacy in Turin, but it is one that owes much to not just his longevity but to the difficulties which he overcame. His price-tag weighed heavily in those early days, while he has also dealt with severe depression and a number of chances to move on to a new challenge.
“I have six Scudetti in a row, but also 10 in my career [including the two revoked in the Calciopoli scandal]," Buffon wrote in a column for La Stampa earlier this year. “Yes, 10. I’m not ashamed to say that. I won them all, on the pitch, next to the champions whose faces, fatigue and smiles I can see as I write. I’m thinking of Pavel [Nedved], Alex [Del Piero], David [Trezeguet], Camo [Mauro Camoranesi]… and then myself.
“We chose to stay together to honour a shirt, a club, a fanbase. We lost everything to gain things which aren’t measurable and can’t be bartered: respect, affection,” he continued. “Founding values for a group and a team, because without us there would be no victories, records and conquests.”
Without that record-breaking move on this day in 2001, there certainly would be none of that for Juventus supporters or Gigi Buffon. Unthinkable, no matter what the cost.
