Gianluigi Buffon, the legendary goalkeeper for Juventus and the Italian national team, recently shared insights about his relationships with various coaches throughout his career. In an interview with Juventibus, Buffon highlighted Antonio Conte as his favorite coach while also recounting memorable experiences with Marcello Lippi and Massimiliano Allegri.
Speaking about Lippi, Buffon recalled a pivotal moment: “Lippi told me, ‘You’ll come to Juve, and at your first mistake, you’ll be massacred. Don’t worry, it’s part of the process.’ The credibility of the person you’re talking to becomes fundamental, and there were few like Lippi.”
When discussing his preferred coaches, Buffon emphasized the impact of winning on his preferences. He singled out Conte as particularly special, saying, “Conte is something special for me, first my captain at Juve and then coach. He’s the person who knew how to refresh in me what it meant to represent Juve, something we had lost, and his arrival meant this. He made me return to the ferocity and desire to excel that had stopped. He pushes you to the limit, a limit you didn’t think you had.”
Buffon credited Conte with giving meaning to his decision to stay with Juventus in Serie B, adding, “Thanks to him, he gave meaning to my choice to stay at Juve in Serie B. In my head, there was the idea of winning at least one more Scudetto.”
The goalkeeper also spoke warmly of Lippi, noting, “Beyond Juve, we shared the most important experience for a player, which is winning a World Cup.”
Reflecting on a crucial season under Allegri, Buffon recounted, “The year we turned things around with Sassuolo, I had the perception that if we found the right key to perform at our best, we could have competed for it, not win it easily as it happened. Great credit goes to the coach. It was Allegri’s second year, he was still somewhat disliked by the fans, and that start could have confused him, but as he has always shown, when there’s more pressure, he manages to maintain the necessary coolness.”
