Gianluigi Buffon has played with and against a who’s who in football, but only one name stands out as the best.
Across a glittering playing career that spanned four decades and nearly 1000 appearances, Buffon represented Parma, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.
It is Buffon’s 19-year stint at Juventus which is undoubtedly his most memorable, helping The Old Lady to a whopping ten scudettos.
At Juventus, Buffon played alongside the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pavel Nedved and Giorgio Chiellini, who all made the sublime appear effortless.
Buffon was wooed to the French capital for the 2018/19 season and lined up with Edinson Cavani, Angel Di Maria and Kylian Mbappe for a season.
A return to Juventus called in 2019 as Buffon could now call Portuguese icon Cristiano Ronaldo a teammate.
Buffon also had the unenviable task of keeping the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Lionel Messi and Ronaldo, to name three, at bay during Serie A and Champions League fixtures.
However, when asked by Italian publication Corriere della Sera which player was the best he played with or against, Buffon provided an eyebrow-raising answer.
“I played for three generations,” Buffon said.
“How can I say that? Zidane, Ronaldo, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Iniesta.
“But if I have to choose one, I say Neymar. For the player and the boy he is, he should have won five Ballons d’Or.”
Buffon and Neymar shared the field only 13 times in the Italian’s sole season at PSG as he battled for the starting goalkeeper role with Alphonse Areola, who is now at West Ham United.
As for Neymar, his 2018/19 campaign was derailed by injury, including a 19-game stint on the sidelines due to a metatarsal fracture.
Neymar came closest to winning the Ballon d’Or in 2015 and 2017 when he finished third in the rankings behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on both occasions.
Sadly the 32-year-old is highly unlikely to hit those heights ever again after he moved to Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal in 2023 and continues to deal with injury problems.
He made just five appearances for Al-Hilal last season before he tore his ACL while on international duty with Brazil in October 2023 and only returned to action on October 21 before sustaining a hamstring injury.
Perhaps Buffon’s verdict on the best player he lined up alongside could have been different if he opted for a different career path in his twilight.
In fact, it would have meant Buffon had the rare claim to fame of playing alongside both Ronaldo and Messi.
The only thing that stopped him from making the move to Barcelona was a perfectly-timed song on the radio.
“I had an offer from Barcelona as a second goalkeeper,” Buffon said.
“The idea of playing with Messi, after CR7, I liked it.
“One day, however, I was driving, and on the radio they were playing ‘Bella’ by Jovanotti. I looked up, and I saw the Parma toll booth. A sign. To end where it all began.”
That’s exactly how the final arc of Buffon’s time as a footballer played out as he returned to boyhood club Parma, where he began his career, in 2021.
At the ripe age of 43, Buffon spent two seasons at Parma but was unable to drag the club back to Serie A.
He eventually called time on his career at the end of the 2022/23 campaign and now work as the team manager for the Italian national side.
