Slouched at the back of the bus that takes you from the hotel to the Tardini, he purrs loudly. The companions around him observe him with amusement, because that seventeen-year-old boy doesn’t show even a drop of tension. Everyone is curious to see him in action except, perhaps, Alessandro Nista, the second goalkeeper. He took it very badly, and it couldn’t be otherwise. The night before Nevio Scala, the Parma coach, knocked on the door of this underage goalkeeper called Gianluigi Buffon. He sat on his bed in the hotel room, stared into his eyes and said: “What if I let you play tomorrow?” Imperturbable response: “No problem, mister.” So Gigi went to sleep without worries, the same thing he’s doing right now on the club bus. He doesn’t have to start against Milan in the most important match of the season anyway. Do you think so? And yes.
Nista, it was said, is furious. With Luca Bucci sidelined due to a long injury, the place on the field would be his. Except that this goalkeeper arrived from the Primavera team this week to train with the first team. Everyone started pulling at him, Stoichkov, Zola, Asprilla, Dino Baggio and so on with the rest of the team. Goals: none. At a certain point Scala turned towards his deputy, his eyes wild: “Are you also seeing what I’m seeing?”. Answer: “We are faced with a phenomenon.” Thus the choice for the match of November 19, 1995 at the Tardini it seems inevitable. Out is the reliable but ordinary Nista, in is a superman of saves like Buffon. No driving license or right to vote, but the possibility of competing against Weah and Roberto Baggio in the big match between the top two in the championship, yes.
In training Gigi saved everything – stuff that Holly and Benji did later – but it wasn’t these feats that persuaded Scala. Or rather, not only these. What had the greatest impact was the ataractic calm with which he is approaching a commitment that would make a veteran go weak in the legs. So tense that he takes a nap before the big game. He can only go there, between the posts.
“In the Tardini locker room I changed calmly and only then did I begin to feel a little disoriented – wrote Buffon in his autobiography ‘Number 1’ – ‘Crippone’, Massimo Crippa, and Alessandro Melli helped me, two golden boys who had a jovial character like mine. Do we want to say that they were a little immature like me? Let’s face it. “Gigi, is everything okay?” Enough. I had a great desire to make myself known as goalkeeper, I couldn’t wait for the referee to blow his whistle to demonstrate my qualities. I couldn’t wait for people to point at me and say, “That’s Buffon.”
Then we take to the field. Parma with a cemented 5-3-2, Milan with the disguised Capellian 4-4-2, full of talented thoroughbreds. The setting is not random, it is immediately reflected on the ground. The Rossoneri conquer meters and begin to lead the way. Thirteenth: Weah in an exotic playmaker version puts it in for Eranio, who hooks into the area but as soon as he turns he loses the ball: Gigi has already grabbed it. End of the first half, Diavolo still pushing compulsively. Boban draws a poisonous trajectory, Weah doesn’t get there but Roberto Baggio does. A header with a sure shot, it seems like the opening goal, but Buffon’s big hand saves it and makes the AC Milan fans swallow their joy. In the meantime, even the Rai commentators, who had presented him as the grandson of the great goalkeeper Lorenzo Buffon and nothing more, understand that a future champion is moving before their eyes and give heartfelt praise. The real miracle, however, is yet to come.
78th minute. Marco Simone, who has just come on in place of Baggio, hooks into the area and turns into a handkerchief, exploding a shot that seems destined to break the deadlock. However, Buffon stretches out and saves this one too. And, in the end, he also blocks Weah by snatching the ball from him in a low grip: it is the beginning of a domination that will continue for over twenty years of his career, always played as the number one of the number ones. That November day thirty years ago, the whole world knew Gigi Buffon and, from that moment on, they would not stop considering him the best goalkeeper in the history of football.
Today the dynasty continues with Louiswho plays for Pisa and has chosen the Czech Republic as his national team.
The role is different – he is a winger – but the age is the same: 17 years old. It’s difficult to think of a career as bright as his father’s, but a lot is already expected from him. Gigi will surely have told him not to get anxious.