Lorenzo Buffon

Lorenzo Buffon

Buffon and his then-wife Edy Campagnoli, 1958
Personal information
Date of birth (1929-12-19) 19 December 1929
Place of birth Majano, Italy[1]
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[2]
Playing position Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1948–1949 Portogruaro 34 (0)
1949–1959 Milan 277 (0)
1959–1960 Genoa 20 (0)
1960–1963 Internazionale 79 (0)
1963–1964 Fiorentina 1 (0)
1964–1965 Ivrea 11 (0)
National team
1958–1962  Italy 15 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Lorenzo Buffon (born 19 December 1929 in Majano, Friuli) is an Italian former football goalkeeper. Throughout his career, he played 277 times for Italian club A.C. Milan, and also later played for their city rivals Internazionale, as well as other Italian clubs, winning five Serie A titles. At international he was capped for the Italian international side on 15 occasions, representing his country at the 1962 FIFA World Cup.

Buffon is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation, and as one of Italy's greatest ever goalkeepers.[1][3] Alongside the legendary goalkeeper Lev Yashin, he was notably chosen to represent the FIFA All-Star squad during the 1960s.[4]

Club career

Born in Majano, in the province of Udine, overall, Buffon played 15 seasons (365 games) in the Serie A for A.C. Milan (1949–59), Genoa C.F.C. (1959–60), F.C. Internazionale Milano (1960–63), and ACF Fiorentina (1963–64). He began his career with Portogruaro in 1948 before moving to Milan the following season. With Milan, he made his Serie A debut on 15 January 1950, keeping a clean sheet in a 1–0 home win over Sampdoria; he played 277 games for the club, and gained international prominence, achieving great success, as he won four Serie A titles, and two Latin Cups, despite competition for a place in the starting line-up with fellow keeper Narciso Soldan. With Milan, Buffon also notably reached the final of the 1957–58 European Cup, and the semi-finals of the 1955–56 European Cup, where the Italian club was defeated by eventual champions Real Madrid on both occasions.[1][2] He is one of four goalkeepers to make 300 total appearances for Milan, behind Christian Abbiati, Sebastiano Rossi, and Dida.

In his later career, Buffon first joined Genoa for a season in 1959, and subsequently moved to Milan's cross-city rivals Inter in 1960, on both occasions as a replacement for his career rival, Giorgio Ghezzi, who had instead joined Buffon's former club Milan in 1959. With Inter, Buffon won another Serie A title during the 1962–63 season under legendary manager Helenio Herrera, who would famously coach Inter to greater domestic and European successes in later years.[5] During his three seasons with Inter, he also reached the semi-finals of the 1960–61 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, although his best placement in the Coppa Italia was a quarter-final finish. In total, Buffon won five Serie A titles throughout his career. After spending a season with Fiorentina, making only a single appearance in the league, he retired after a season with Ivrea in 1965.[1][2][6]

International career

Buffon was also capped 15 times for the Italian national team between 1958 and 1962; he made his international debut in a 2–2 friendly home draw against France, on 9 September 1958,[7] and later represented his country as their captain and starting goalkeeper in the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile. He made 2 appearances throughout the tournament, keeping two clean sheets in a 0–0 draw against West Germany, and in a 3–0 win over Switzerland on 7 June, his final international appearance, while he was replaced in goal by Carlo Mattrel for Italy's second group match against hosts Chile, which ended in a 2–0 defeat. Italy were controversially eliminated in the first round of the tournament.[1][2][8]

Style of play

An athletic yet efficient and reliable goalkeeper, Buffon was known in particular for his positional sense, handling, acrobatic saves, and spectacular shot-stopping abilities, which earnt him the nickname Lorenzo il Magnifico; he was less effective at coming off his line to collect crosses, and performed better between the posts. Despite his reputation as a world-class keeper, he was also occasionally criticised throughout his career for being inconsistent, and for letting his mentality affect his performances.[1][9]

After retirement

Following his retirement from professional football, Buffon worked as a youth talent scout for Milan.[4]

Personal life

Lorenzo Buffon is related to Gianluigi Buffon, the current successful captain and notable goalkeeper of Juventus and the Italian national team;[4] Lorenzo is a cousin of Gianluigi's grandfather.[4] Lorenzo Buffon is also remembered for his marriage to the late Italian actress and television personality Edy Campagnoli, who had previously been in a relationship with his career rival, Ghezzi.[4][10]

Honours

Club

Milan[6]
Inter[6]

Individual

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Lorenzo Buffon". magliarossonera.it (in Italian). Magliarossonera.it. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Buffon, Lorenzo" (in Italian). EnciclopediadelCalcio.it. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  3. ↑ IFFHS' Century Elections Archived 3 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine. - www.rsssf.com - by Karel Stokkermans, RSSSF.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Ci ritorni in mente... Lorenzo Buffon" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "La leggenda della Grande Inter" [The legend of the Grande Inter] (in Italian). Inter.it. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "Un rossonero da Raccontare… Lorenzo Buffon" (in Italian). Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  7. ↑ "Francia-Italia 2-2" (in Italian). Italia1910.com. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  8. ↑ "Nazionale in cifre: Buffon, Lorenzo". www.figc.it (in Italian). FIGC. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  9. ↑ Paolo Pegoraro (28 January 2017). "Lorenzo Buffon rivela: "Il mio Milan snobbò Gigi in gioventù"" (in Italian). Eurosport. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  10. ↑ "Il kamikaze Ghezzi e le notti di Cesenatico" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  11. ↑ "A.C. Milan Hall of Fame: Lorenzo Buffon". A.C. Milan. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Giampiero Boniperti		 Italy captain
1961–1962 		Succeeded by
Cesare Maldini
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