Know Gianluigi Buffon,the Italian goalie who will be playing his fifth World Cup

MANGARATIBA, Brazil: In every edition of the world cup, new records are being made while the old ones are broken. The 2014 world cup will be the fifth one for the Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. He is also the captain of the Italian team .The 36-year-old goalkeeper is only the third player in history to be part of five World Cup squads, along with Germany great Lothar Matthaus and former Mexico goalkeeper Antonio Carbajal.Buffon first went to the World Cup back in 1998, although he didn't play a second-choice option behind Gianluca Pagliuca. He then took over the starting position from 2002 onward."A fifth World Cup is a nice milestone but that doesn't mean I'm satisfied," Buffon said before departing for Brazil. "Both individually and as a squad we're preparing to surprise people."Buffon, of course, doesn't need to prove anything at this point in his career. He was one of the driving forces behind Italy's run to the 2006 World Cup title, when he didn't concede a single goal to opponents during normal play over the course of seven matches -- letting in only an own goal from Cristian Zaccardo and a penalty from Zinedine Zidane in the final won over France.He helped Parma to the UEFA Cup title way back in 1999 and has since won five Serie A titles with Juventus -- including the last three. "There are players here who are at their first big tournament and he's always there offering the right words of advice," Marchisio added Tuesday.Born to members of Italy's national teams in athletics (his mother) and weightlifting (father), Buffon's distant relative Lorenzo Buffon was also Italy's goalkeeper in the 1950s.Having played in midfield as a kid, Buffon decided he wanted to be a goalkeeper after seeing Thomas N'Kono defend Cameroon's goal during the 1990 World Cup in Italy -- when Buffon was 12 -- and years later Buffon named his first son Louis Thomas after N'Kono. In 1991 when Buffon was just 13, Parma purchased his rights and put him in their youth system. At 17, Buffon made his Serie A debut with Parma, keeping a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw against AC Milan.At 19, Buffon made a memorable Italy debut on a snowy pitch in Moscow during a playoff with Russia for a spot in the 1998 World Cup. Fast forward to 2006, when Buffon was one of the few key players to stay with Juventus when the Turin club was relegated to Serie B due to a match-fixing scandal -- meaning that a month after guiding Italy to the World Cup title, he was playing in small second-division stadiums.Then at the 2010 World Cup, Buffon struggled with back pain. He played only a portion of Italy's opening match and the Azzurri were promptly eliminated after the first round. But he was back in place to help Italy reach the final of the 2012 European Championship. And last October, Buffon surpassed Fabio Cannavaro with an Italy-record 137th appearance."Motivation is the key," he said in a recent interview with Italian daily La Repubblica. "Reflexes diminish. At my age you don't improve anymore, so it's better to reduce training and take better care of injury prevention, nutrition and gym work." .

Know Gianluigi Buffon,the Italian goalie who will be playing his fifth World Cup

MANGARATIBA, Brazil: In every edition of the world cup, new records are being made while the old ones are broken. The 2014 world cup will be the fifth one for the Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

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