Lorenzo Buffon

Lorenzo Buffon (Italian pronunciation: [loˈrɛntso bufˈfɔn, -ˈfon],[3][4] Friulian: [buˈfoŋ]; born 19 December 1929) 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.

For other people named Buffon, see Buffon (disambiguation).
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]
Position(s) 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)
Total 422 (0)
National team
1958–1962 Italy 15 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only
The A.C. Milan squad for the 1957–58 season. From left to right, standing: Reina, Galli, Fontana, Soldan, Lorenzo Buffon, Nils Liedholm, Juan Alberto Schiaffino, Radice, Bean; crouched: Beraldo, Grillo, Mariani, Cesare Maldini, Bergamaschi, Zannier, Francesco Zagatti, Cucchiaroni.

Buffon is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation, and as one of Italy's greatest ever goalkeepers.[1][5] Alongside goalkeeper Lev Yashin, he was chosen to represent the FIFA All-Star squad during the 1960s.[6]

Club career

Born in Majano, in the province of Udine, overall, Buffon played 15 seasons (365 games) in the Serie A for Milan (1949–59), Genoa (1959–60), Internazionale (1960–63), and 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 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 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] With 300 appearances for Milan, he is one of only four goalkeepers in the club's history to have reached this milestone, behind only Christian Abbiati (380), Sebastiano Rossi (330), and Dida (302).[7]

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 perceived career rival, Giorgio Ghezzi, who had instead joined Buffon's former club Milan in 1959.[8] With Inter, Buffon won another Serie A title during the 1962–63 season under manager Helenio Herrera, who would coach Inter to greater domestic and European successes in later years.[9] 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][10]

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,[11] 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][12]

Style of play

An athletic yet effective and reliable goalkeeper, Buffon was known in particular for his positional sense, handling, and efficient style of goalkeeping, which enabled him to produce acrobatic saves without having to resort to histrionics; his spectacular shot-stopping abilities earned him the nickname Lorenzo il Magnifico. Although he was a fairly tall and physically strong keeper, he was less effective at coming off his line to collect crosses, and performed better between the posts. Despite his reputation as a generally solid and world-class keeper, he was also occasionally criticised throughout his career for being inconsistent, and for his mindset, as well as for letting his mentality affect his performances at times.[1][13][14]

Personal life

Following his retirement from professional football, Buffon worked as a youth talent scout for Milan.[6] He is related to goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon;[6] Lorenzo is a cousin of Gianluigi's grandfather.[6] Lorenzo is also remembered for his marriage to Italian actress and television personality Edy Campagnoli, who had previously been in a relationship with his perceived career rival, Giorgio Ghezzi.[6][15]

Honours

Club
Milan[10]
Inter[10]

Individual

References
  1. "Lorenzo Buffon". magliarossonera.it (in Italian). Magliarossonera.it. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  2. "Buffon, Lorenzo" (in Italian). EnciclopediadelCalcio.it. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  3. Luciano Canepari. "Lorenzo". DiPI Online (in Italian). Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  4. Luciano Canepari. "Buffon". DiPI Online (in Italian). Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  5. IFFHS' Century Elections Archived 3 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine - www.rsssf.com - by Karel Stokkermans, RSSSF.
  6. "Ci ritorni in mente... Lorenzo Buffon" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  7. "20 anni e 150 in rossonero: Donnarumma da talento a fenomeno, con il Milan nel cuore" (in Italian). www.ilmilanista.it. 11 February 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  8. Andrea Oliveri (10 September 2010). "Nel 1959 viene deciso lo scambio tra i portieri Ghezzi e Buffon" (in Italian). www.pianetagenoa1893.net. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  9. "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.
  10. "Un rossonero da Raccontare… Lorenzo Buffon" (in Italian). Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  11. "Francia-Italia 2-2" (in Italian). Italia1910.com. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  12. "Nazionale in cifre: Buffon, Lorenzo". www.figc.it (in Italian). FIGC. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  13. Paolo Pegoraro (28 January 2017). "Lorenzo Buffon rivela: "Il mio Milan snobbò Gigi in gioventù"" (in Italian). Eurosport. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  14. Iacopo Iandiorio (3 September 2005). "Uno su tutti" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  15. "Il kamikaze Ghezzi e le notti di Cesenatico" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  16. "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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