Juventus: Ranking the five best goalkeepers of all time

2. Dino Zoff

And so we come to Dino Zoff. Pretty much every football fan with some respect for the sport’s history is familiar with the name. Zoff is another Italian national team captain and true Juventino whose greatness in Calcio spans decades.

The Mariano del Friuli-born Zoff started his career in Udinese and even played for Napoli before joining Juventus. He made over 100 appearances for Mantova and Napoli, but he will always be mostly associated with the Bianconeri for playing in 330 games for Juve, achieving the pinnacle of success with Italy’s greatest club.

Zoff won six Serie A titles, two Coppa Italia, and the UEFA Cup in 1976-1977. And five years after his UEFA Cup triumph, Zoff would hoist the World Cup as the oldest-ever winner of the competition and one of the few keepers to win the trophy as captain, just like Gianpiero Combi did decades earlier.

Very few keepers can match his individual trophy cabinet as well. It is almost impossible for goalkeepers to receive Ballon d’Or recognition, but Zoff is one of the few keepers to place highly, coming second to the unsurpassable Johan Cruyff in the award’s voting in 1973.

The IFFHS named him as the best Italian goalkeeper of the century and the third-best goalkeeper of the century in the entire world. Talk about high praise.

Zoff didn’t just distinguish himself as one of the all-time greats in goal either. His legacy with Juventus extends to the manager’s chair, where he won the Coppa Italia and UEFA Cup in 1989-1990. Juve made the mistake of firing him that very same season, and, nearly a decade later, he led Lazio to a UEFA Cup Final.

There’s no doubt that Zoff is one of the best Juventus players ever. He gave everything to the club and is one of the most intelligent keepers to have ever worn a pair of gloves.