Buffon: “I was the VAR” in the World Cup final 2006 with Zidane

Gigi Buffon reveals the most supported compliments he received from Marcello Lippi and Max Allegri. “I was the var.”

The legendary Italy star presented his new book at an event in Turin and asked questions from reporters to report his career height and low.

You can read some of his comments here.

“The topic of the book is that goalkeeper is a metaphor for life. They stand out, rise again, fall, they rise again.

The highlight of his career was the winning of the 2006 World Cup with Italy in a penalty shot against France, but it was a night that was bitterness due to Zidanes headbutt on Marco Materazzi.

EPA01094126 (files) This file combination of TV snappers shows the foul by Zinedine Zidane of France in the Italy Marco Materazzi and the red card from Schiedsrich

In the period before the introduction of Var, Buffon saw it live and hurried over to tell the referee what he had seen and prompted the fourth official to confirm the crime of the red cards.

“At that moment I was the VAR,” he laughed.

“My reaction and my run in the direction of the area in which it happened made sure that the referees recognized what had happened. Of course they will never admit it, but they saw it again in the television monitors. I was the only one who saw everything that happened in real time.”

Fort Lauderdale, Florida – March 21: Gianluigi Buffon from Italy arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before the international friendly between Venezuela and Italy in the chase stage. (Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images)

Buffon was also in the Italy squad, which had crashed in South Africa at the beginning of the 2010 World Cup. The poorly advised return to the role of coach Lippi.

“I was injured, so I got back into the changing room and saw everyone who was shut down with their heads. The coach came, he was calm but detached. ‘Guys’, he said.” It is not your fault, it is my fault that I put you like an idiot that I brought you here.’

During his entire career, Supergigi was known for his ebulli personality, so there was a tendency to conjure up the crowd, even from his debut for Parma as a teenager against Milan.

“I was young, disrespectful, very confident in myself, but also clever. I went to sleep in the team bus. I realized that my teammates were adults, champions, so they had to know that it could be familiar to me and the only way I knew was to calm them down.

“In these last minutes of the games you can feel the passion of the crowd and it also attracts them in the field. They recognize the moment of tension, the cheers for a rescue or the joy of a goal. The ability to change the mood of so many people in a moment is a superpower that I had that I had.”

Hamburg, Germany – December 02: The special guest Gianluigi Buffon can be seen with the UEFA Euro 2024 Trophy during the UEFA Euro 2024 final tournament on December 2, 2023 in Hamburg in Elbphilharmonie. (Photo by Alexander Scheuber/Getty Images)

The goalkeeper worked in his career with some of the sizes and also stood some legendary trainers such as Brescia boss and Ready Wit Carlo Mazzone and ex-Juventus tactic Allegri.

“I saved absolutely everything against Brescia. I came into the changing room and Mazzone was with the face of a man who wanted to revenge.

“Allegri said to me that my greatest strength was my tendency to experience everything with a total state of ruthlessness. From time to time I think about it and feel that he might be right,” Buffon remarked.

His first large trophy was the UEFA Cup with Parma in 1999, but that wasn’t quite a joyful experience either.

“At that time it was almost as much worth the Champions League, but it didn’t like it that it was played in Moscow, this huge stadium with very few people.”