Gianluigi Buffon will make history today with his 648th Series A appearance, surpassing Paolo Maldini, but far from being the only record, he holds. The 42-year-old goalkeeper recently signed a contract extension to June 2021, meaning he’ll be 43 years old and 5 months old say Football Italia by the time it expires.
SuperGigi made his Series A debut in Parma, keeping a clean sheet with Milan in the 0-0 draw on November 19, 1995, when he was just 17 years, nine months and 22 days old. When Luca Bucci was unavailable, Nevio Scala was the coach who gave him the nod when the teenager clashed with Roberto Baggio, George Weah, and Zvonimir Boban.
The man whose record he is about to break also played the same day at Stadio Tardini: Maldini. Since then, he has played against the sons of former teammates, Federico Chiesa and Marcus Thuram, went straight from winning the 2006 World Cup to a season that helped Juventus get out of Series B after the Calciopoli fiasco and had a career at Paris Saint-Germain, 41.
During his 647 Series A matches so far, Buffon has kept 296 clean sheets and has scored 524 goals. There was one game in the Series A play-off for Europe as well, when Parma lost 3-1 to Inter in May 2000, but it doesn’t count as an appearance in Series A. The match count isn’t his only feat, as Buffon also owns the all-time longest unbeaten Serie A streak by a goalkeeper, clocking in at 973 minutes.
Funnily enough, he set that up in a Turin Derby on March 20, 2016, too.
Buffon has won nine Series A titles, including a total of five Coppa Italia editions, six Italian Supercups, UEFA Cup, Ligue 1 trophy, French Supercup and Series B championships, not including the 2004-05 and 2005-06 Scudetti revoked as part of Calciopoli.
It will be his 1,115th competitive game in which he awarded 920 goals between the levels of club, international, and youth. It will be his 670th appearance in all competitions at Juventus and he has 316 clean sheets so far, with 527 goals to go.
He has played 220 games for Parma (keeping 85 clean sheets) at club level and 25 for Paris Saint-Germain (nine clean sheets).
