1. Gianluigi Buffon
We close the list with a man who will leave Juventus for a second time at the end of the season but who will never be spoken of poorly by Juventini. What Gianluigi Buffon has done for the club is beyond words of gratitude, because no words can repay the way Juventini feel about Gigi. But the fact that he is ranked ahead of a legend such as Dino Zoff should tell you all you need to know about how accomplished he is and how revered he is among the fanbase.
Buffon’s accomplishments are too numerous to list. But I’ll give you a taste of some of the most meaningful. He has made more appearances than any Juventus player or Italian national team player in history. Buffon, as mentioned earlier, has the most consecutive minutes in Serie A without conceding a goal.
He equaled the record of fewest goals conceded (two) by a goalkeeper in a World Cup-winning tournament. He has both the most consecutive clean sheets in a Serie A season and the most total clean sheets in a season – a record he repeated twice with 21 in both 2011-12 and in his legendary 2015-16 campaign. And finally, he has the most Serie A titles as an individual (10) and best goalkeeper awards in the league’s history (12).
When Juventus purchased Buffon for an unthinkable 52 million euros in 2001 after an excellent five seasons with Parma, which included one of the best games ever played by a young keeper in a clean sheet against Milan in 1995, they knew they were getting the next big thing. But I doubt even the people responsible for signing Buffon knew he would become the unequivocal best Italian goalkeeper ever. And there’s a case to be made that Buffon is the greatest Italian player ever, though that’s a trickier one.
Nevertheless, he is absolutely the No. 1 Juventus goalkeeper of all time. In a club full of legends over the years, Buffon stands out about the rest for his longevity, consistency, and leadership. He has been a leader among leaders and a man dedicated to his teammates and to the perfection of his craft. You don’t excel for as long as he is – he’s still one of the best keepers in Serie A at the age of 34, as Sassuolo can attest – without having a singular focus on greatness.