Legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has revealed a battle with depression in his early days at Juventus.
Buffon who switched loyalty to Ligue 1 with PSG, is in the hunt of his first career Champions League gong at the age of 40. He has won 23 trophies thus far including a World Cup title in 2006 in Germany.
“For a few months, everything just stopped making sense. It seemed like no one cared about me, just the footballer I represented. It was like everyone was asking about Buffon and nobody about Gigi. It was a really difficult moment. I was 25, riding the wave of success but one day, before a Serie A match, I went to Ivano Bordon, the goalkeeper coach, and told him: ‘Ivano, get [No. 2 goalkeeper Antonio] Chimenti to warm up and play. I’m not feeling up to it. I had suffered a panic attack and was in no state to play the match.” Buffon told Vanity Fair.
“If I had not gone through this experience, that cloud and that turmoil with other people, I may have never have got out of it. I had the clarity of understanding that it was a watershed moment between giving up and confronting those insecurities we all have. I was never scared of showing them nor of crying — something which happens to me and of which I am not at all embarrassed.
Buffon has played for only three clubs in his career: Parma with 168 appearances, Juventus 506 appearances, and 8 for PSG.