Gianluigi Buffon: Parma star's incredible save vs Inter at age 44 | OneFootball

In case you weren’t aware, Gianluigi Buffon is still playing football at professional level.

Despite the fact he turns 45 (yes, FORTY-FIVE) at the end of this month, the Italian stalwart is on the books at Parma and started their match away at Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia on Tuesday evening.

Buffon, who has made over 1,100 career appearances, re-joined Parma back in the summer of 2021.

It’s the team where Gigi first announced himself to the world. Buffon’s memorable first stint at Parma saw Juventus eventually make him the world’s most expensive goalkeeper in 2001.

A rather special return, of that there can be no doubt, although the 2022/23 season hasn’t exactly been littered with positives for him thus far.

Buffon’s only made three appearances in Serie B due to a host of injuries issues, but as luck would have it, he was fit and available to play Inter at San Siro – 27 years after his first game at the iconic stadium.

And in typical fashion, the veteran shot-stopper lit up the fixture.

Buffon rolled back the years vs Inter

The former Italy international was one of the main reasons why Parma were able to take the last-16 fixture to extra-time.

Fabio Pecchia’s second-tier side actually took a shock first half lead at San Siro through Stanko Juric and they were firmly on top until late on.

Lautaro Martinez levelled the scores at 1-1 on 88 minutes and then Inter had a golden opportunity to take the lead through Edin Dzeko.

But Buffon was on hand to thwart the Bosnian striker’s first-time effort with a reflex save befitting of a man 20 years younger.

Even Dzeko had to applaud the game-saving moment…

Unreal, absolutely unreal from one of the all-time greats. A man of his age should not be able to pull that kind of save off and make it look so easy in the process – but this is no ordinary man we’re talking about here.

Gigi, we salute you!

Sadly for Buffon and Parma, there was no fairytale ending for them in Milan on Tuesday night.

The Serie B side battled hard in extra-time, but couldn’t keep the hosts out for the full 30 minutes of additional play.

A brilliant 110th minute header from defender Francesco Acerbi was just enough to secure a 2-1 victory for Inter and book their place in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals.