Buffon Reveals Battle With Depression In Early Juve Career

By Max Wise

40-year-old Paris Saint Germain goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, has revealed he battled with depression and panic attacks during his early years at Juventus.

Buffon joined Juventus from Parma as a 23-year-old for a reported €52m in the summer of 2001, which was a then record fee for a goalkeeper at the time.

The 2006 World Cup winner spent 17 successful years at Juventus, making 656 appearances and winning nine Serie A titles before joining PSG in July 2018.

"For a few months, everything lost meaning," Buffon said, in an interview with Vanity Fair.

He added: "It seemed like no-one cared about me, just the footballer I represented.”

"It was like everyone was asking about Buffon and nobody about Gigi."

 "I was 25, riding the wave of success, but one day, before a Serie A match, I went to Ivano Bordon, the goalkeeper coach, and told him: 'Ivano, get [No. 2 goalkeeper Antonio] Chimenti to warm up and play. I'm not feeling up to it.”

"I had suffered a panic attack and was in no state to play the match.”

"If I had not gone through this experience, that cloud and that turmoil with other people, I may have never have got out of it."

For all his successes with Juventus, one trophy that eluded Buffon was the Champions League trophy as he lost three finals with the Bianconeri.

Buffon lost the 2003 final in a penalty shootout against AC Milan, as well as the 2015 and 2017 finals against Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.