Buffon says thanks to Juve: “The most beautiful present I could have lived”

I remember the road that led me to Parma. I know the way back. Parma is a boy’s holiday home, the one where you got lost in the woods for hours imagining life. Parma is the album of memories, the one you browse to find yourself. Parma is the friend who has collected your uncertainties and your fears. Parma is the mother who takes you by the hand and helps you cross the street. Parma is the desire to overdo it, the freedom to make mistakes, the courage to grow. Parma is all of us because we all carry a Parma in our hearts. In these years I have traveled the world and I have even climbed to the roof of that world. I have won a lot and sometimes I have lost. But my time with my back to the door isn’t over yet. The pages I have left are all to be written. They will know of memories, emotions from the first time, friends to hug again, photos to review: to smile and be moved. But they will also have the flavor of the challenge, of the conquest, of the desire to win. Because that never goes away. It has always remained the same: from the pitch under the house with friends to the World Cup final.

Parma is my past and my future. Paris Saint Germain was an extraordinary and unforgettable adventure. Juve was the best present I could have lived. I have put all the gratitude I feel I have in these hands, in these gloves, for this black and white shirt: perhaps it will never be enough because enough is a word that finds little space in my vocabulary. I would have liked to give away what we have not conquered, but this is life: learning to enjoy what you have in order not to live with regrets. And I have no regrets at Juve. I have never spared myself. I’ve never backed down. I have never stopped defending that metaphor of existence called a door. My door. And now it’s time to go, once again. Parma awaits me. Because certain loves don’t end. They make huge turns. And sometimes, only for those who believe in it, they come back.