Who is Gianluigi Buffon?

Gianluigi Buffon Ufficiale (born 28 January 1978) is an Italian professional footballer who captains and plays as a goalkeeper for the Serie B club Parma. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, and by some as the greatest ever. He is one of the few recorded players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances.

At club level, Buffon's professional career began with Parma in 1995, where he made his Serie A debut. He soon broke into the starting line-up and earned a reputation as one of the most promising young goalkeepers in Italy, helping Parma to win the Coppa Italia, the UEFA Cup and the Supercoppa Italiana in 1999.

He was born into a sporting family: his mother Maria Stella Masocco was three times Italian champion in shot put and discus throw, his uncle Dante Masocco was a basketball player who played in the Italian Serie A1, his father Adriano also practiced shot put, and his sisters Guendalina and Veronica were professional volleyball players. He is a relative of Lorenzo Buffon, goalkeeper for Milan, Genoa, Inter, Fiorentina and the Italian national team.

On 14 November 2008, Buffon released the Italian edition of his autobiography, "Numero 1" ("Number 1"). In his autobiography, he revealed that he had suffered with bouts of depression during the 2003–04 season, following Juventus' penalty shoot-out defeat in the 2003 Champions League final, and due to Juventus' negative performance that season.