Editorials

A Crash Course In Italian Goalkeeping

From before Dino Zoff to Gianluigi Buffon and beyond, we take you through the need-to-knows of Italian goalkeeping past, present, and future…This article was originally published on The Goalkeeping Blog, now part of the Goalkeeper.com group.When Gianluigi Donnarumma sprawled low to his left to deny Buyako Saka from the penalty spot in the EURO 2020 final, he wrote his name into the footballing history books. Becoming the first Italian goalkeeper to win a major international trophy since his predecessor, the Azzurri stalwart Gianluigi Buffon, lifted the World Cup in 2006, Donnarumma had added another glittering reference to his already impressive CV.Donnarumma, still only 22, is hailed as the future of Italian goalkeeping. He is quickly cementing his place (and arguably already has cemented it) amongst a list of the greatest shot-stoppers to wear a national team shirt that is steeped in history. Germany may have a goalkeeping dynasty, Spain pioneering goalkeeping trend-setters, England an eccentric bunch of cult heroes, and France a list of ever-underrated cats, but Italian goalkeeping matches them all.Italy has a long, refined list of classy goalkeeping greats. It’s a list that makes Italian goalkeeping a longevous entity, spanning generations of truly world class shot-stoppers such as Gianpiero Combi, Dino Zoff, Walter Zenga, and Gianluigi Buffon.Here, The Goalkeeping Blog guides you through the rich history of Italian goalkeeping; a history that has aged like fine wine…The Italian goalkeeping greats of the pastThe current Italian professional football pyramid was formed in 1929, previously a collection of regional group leagues. The establishment of the country’s native giants such as Juventus, the Milans, and Lazio all preceded the creation of Serie A, but Italian goalkeeping’s early father figure began to forge his reputation as one of goalkeeping’s legends simultaneous to the league’s founding.The first great of Italian goalkeeping was Gianpiero Combi, setting the precedent for shot-stopping brilliance in Turin with Juventus. Born and bred in Italy’s footballing heartland, Combi rose to prominence with the giants in his early twenties. Making his debut for Juventus at 20 and his national team debut at 21, Combi began setting records early on. He conceded only 18 goals in the 1925/26 season, and was an integral part of Il Quinquennio d’Oro – the Juventus golden-age side who won five league titles in a row.Yet, as seems to be a theme with Italian goalkeeping, Combi only became more successful with age. Playing over 360 times for Juventus, his main accolades arrived towards the end of his career – winning the majority of his trophy haul after 1930. Perhaps the most famous tournament of Combi’s career was the 1934 World Cup in his homeland, where he faced legendary era-counterpart Ricardo Zamora in the quarter finals.Surpassing the Spaniards in the quarter final after a replay, Combi made two ‘miraculous’ saves against Austria in the semi-final, before lifting the World Cup trophy as captain. It was, perhaps surprisingly, the only time he would do so in a career remembered as one of the most composed, graceful, and ultimately successful in Italian goalkeeping history.The man who was supposed to play Combi’s part in the 1934 World Cup was Carlo Ceresoli. Ceresoli’s career was more varied than Combi’s – starting in goal for four different domestic clubs (Inter Milan, Bologna, Genoa and Juventus) – but Ceresoli arguably always sat in Combi’s shadow. Nonetheless, whilst Combi was remembered for his elegance, Ceresoli is permanently – and somewhat legendarily – attached to the image of saving Eric Brook’s penalty in the infamous 1934 ‘Battle of Highbury‘.‘Brook took the drive from the spot and tried to place the ball just under the bar, but Ceresoli sprang like a jumper and with both hands above his head beat the ball away with his palms’, described the Guardian the morning after the game.‘The cohorts of Italy cheered and Englishmen wondered what sort of a goalkeeper was this leaping acrobat. In his spectacular style he soon convinced the crowd that he was a Spring-heel Jack with a splendid sense of anticipation’.Fast forward twenty years, and Buffon arrives on the scene.That’s right. Lorenzo Buffon was the first of that illustrious goalkeeping family to grace the Italian goalkeeping scene. Named in the FIFA All-Star squad of the 1960s alongside Lev Yashin, related to Gianluigi as the cousin of the his grandfather, Buffon Sr. made over 400 professional appearances. Unlike his namesake in the 21st century, however, Lorenzo Buffon made his mark on Italian goalkeeping with AC Milan.Buffon’s life off the pitch was as interesting as it was on it. He was married to Edy Campagnoli, an Italian model and television personality who had previously been in a relationship with the eccentric shot-stopper and Buffon’s arch-rival Giorgio Ghezzi. One of the original sweeper-keepers, Ghezzi was nicknamed ‘Kamikaze’ and dominated Italian goalkeeping during the 1950s along with Buffon.Ghezzi played on both sides of the Milan divide, first with Internazionale (Inter Milan) and then with AC. As Buffon began to appear prone to injury, he and Ghezzi swapped sides with the latter replacing Buffon at AC Milan and Buffon himself heading to Genoa. Yet, the twists and turns of the goalkeeping pair’s turbulent relationship didn’t end there, with Buffon later joining the club at which Ghezzi had forged his name into Italian goalkeeping history books: Inter Milan.Buffon’s and Ghezzi’s lives and careers seemed to intertwine intrinsically, both noted to be a little mad in between the sticks, passionately emotional, and extremely skilled at their unique trades. Buffon would only play 12 more games after leaving Inter, whilst Ghezzi retired at AC Milan. However, when it came to the international stage, it was Buffon who had the last laugh, starting the 1962 World Cup in Chile as Italy’s number one.After Italy’s shock elimination, neither goalkeeper would ever play for the national team again.If it was Ghezzi who marked the first generation of sweeper-keepers in Italian goalkeeping, it was Fiorentina, then Inter Milan, goalkeeper Giuliano Sarti who furthered its progression. A member of the uber-successful Grande Inter side of the 1960s, Sarti won six trophies during his spell with I nerazzurri and in the process platformed an innovative and somewhat unorthodox style both in his sweeping and on one v ones, tending to sick to his line rather than rush the attacker.The name’s Zoff. Dino Zoff.Dino Zoff is only beaten as the greatest Italian goalkeeper of all time by Gianluigi Buffon. Harsh as that may be on the past-president of Italian goalkeeping, Zoff’s 22-year-long career is nothing to nullify. One only has to scroll through the list of incredible records he set, the trophies he won, and individual accolades to his name to recognise that Dino Zoff has played a starring role in Italian goalkeeping history.A glittering playing career, littered with club success primarily in his 300-plus appearances with Juventus between 1972 and 1983, was matched by an equally impressive stint in management, on which Zoff embarked five years after retiring aged 40. The end of Dino Zoff’s reign as the ex-king of Italian goalkeeping was just as impressive as it started, winning the 1982 World Cup captaining Italy to lifting the Jules Rimet trophy as the oldest player to ever start, play in, and win the tournament.It was this unflappable consistency that made Zoff’s career simply outstanding. An astute, down to earth, and meticulously detailed man by all accounts, listing the material accolades that the Italian accrued during his playing days would be meaningless without noting the sheer hard work, model professionalism, and efficacy-before-beauty that encapsulated Zoff’s time as the Godfather of Italian Goalkeeping.Zoff being named the third greatest goalkeeper of the 20th Century is less of a ‘failure’ to add another victory to the list for the now 79-year old, but rather a testament to the greatness of Gordon Banks and Lev Yashin who sit above him on the list created in 1999. As a manager, the shot-stopper took Italy to the EURO 2000 final and amassed over 300 games between spells at Juventus, Lazio, (thrice) and Fiorentina, winning the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia in the 1989/90 season with the former.It is somewhat ironic that Zoff titled his autobiography ‘Dura solo un attimo, la gloria‘, translated as ‘Glory Only Lasts a Moment’. True or otherwise, the glory of Dino Zoff has lasted for much more than a moment; rather, decades, generations, and likely well into the future.Between 1980 and the Millennium, Walter Zenga, Francesco Toldo, Angelo Perzurri, Sebastian Rossi, Stefano Tacconi, and Gianluca Pagliuca all made their mark on Italian goalkeeping. Each goalkeeper had a spectacular career in their own right, but some stood out more than others. Not listed above chronologically, Zenga was a three-time winner of the IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper Award, and is widely regarded as one of the best – and most brazen – goalkeepers to play the game.A stint as a soap opera actor in Italy coupled with a managerial career of varied success spanning 19 different clubs around the globe makes Zenga a well travelled figure.Elsewhere on the pitch, Italian goalkeeping records were set by Sebastian Rossi when he broke Dino Zoff’s 21 year record of the longest streak without conceding a goal in Serie A history, at 929 minutes in 1994. Gianluca Pagliuca was the first goalkeeper to save a penalty in a World Cup Final shootout, and Taconi is the only goalkeeper to have ever won Champions League, Europa League, UEFA Cup Winners Cup, Super Cup, and the Intercontinental Cup.And, had it not been for a certain Gianluigi Buffon, Francesco Toldo would most definitely have made a further mark on the Italian National team over the late 1990s and early 2000s.The Azzurri goalkeeping generation todayChristian Abbiati’s retirement in 2016 would have marked the end of the ‘made in the nineties’ generation of Italian goalkeepers had it not been for Gianluigi Buffon’s practically superhuman longevity. Already nearing 40 upon Abbiati’s retirement, few could, at the time, have imagined Buffon to still be playing professional football five years later.Buffon’s immensity has shadowed a generation of Italian goalkeepers who – to this day – set a high bar for the next generation of Italian goalkeeping to meet. Aside from Abbiati, whose career was strangely marred by an oddly open omission of his fascist political leanings in 2008, Salvatore Sirigu was – and arguably continues to be – the second in command in the rankings of Italian goalkeeping leadership.Sirigu, currently with Genoa where one may speculate he is likely to end his career, has lived under the spectre of Buffon when it comes to the Italian national team. Despite six years as Paris Saint-Germain’s first choice goalkeeper as the French giants entered their new, lucrative era in 2011, Sirigu has managed only 21 appearances for Italy in 11 years.A goalkeeper trusted by PSG with over 400 career appearances between France, Italy, and Spain’s top divisions would, in any other context, command the national team’s number one shirt. Yet, Sirigu has never been able to enjoy the limelight as Buffon has done, nor as Donnarumma has begun to do.In fact, Sirigu has 55 unused call-up caps to his name; match squads in which he featured, but never stepped onto the pitch. This is the second most of any Italian goalkeeper ever, after ex-Udinese and Napoli goalkeeper, Morgan de Sanctis.The majority of Italy’s current goalkeeping crop reside in Serie A. Aside from Donnarumma (undoubtedly the most notable name) who is finding game time difficult to come by at PSG, the likes of Mattia Perin, Andrea Consigli, and Alessio Cragno are all plying their trade in Italy. However, statistically speaking, they are inconsistent. Perin enjoyed a particularly fruitful 2020/21 season, recording a PSxG of +5.2 across 32 games, but like Consigli and, indeed, Italy’s current number three Alex Meret, he has not yet enjoyed a run of consistently statistically impressive seasons.Of course, statistics don’t define a goalkeeper. There is a reason why Consigli has over professional 500 appearances to his name. Despite a heavily negative PSxG so far this year, the earlier years of Consigli’s career were perhaps more impressive (at least pre-2015), although arguably has been unfulfilled given his promise in the Italian U21 set up in the late 2000s.Alex Meret is consistently linked with moves away from Napoli across Europe, and was rumoured to be on Liverpool’s shopping list before the Reds opted for Alisson Becker in 2018. Statistically, he has been a rather poor shot-stopper for the last two years and appears to have stagnated somewhat in tandem with Napoli’s disappointing 2019/20 and 2020/21 campaigns. Yet, Meret is noted to be particularly unflappable, and analysts have drawn comparison with Sebastian Rossi who sported an equally commanding and composed presence in the penalty box.Who is the next big thing in Italian goalkeeping?At 24 and 22 respectively, Meret and Donnarumma are both equally the future of Italian goalkeeping. No matter how few games Donnarumma plays at PSG this year, nor how well Meret does with Napoli, it is likely that Donnarumma will retain the number one jersey for the Azzurri at the 2022 World Cup after his excellent EURO 2020 campaign.Simone Scuffet, now 25 and playing for APOEL FC in Cyprus, was once hailed as the successor to Buffon after debuting for Udinese at 17. It seems to be an Italian goalkeeping trait to introduce shot-stoppers young to Serie A – and for the likes of Donnarumma, this has added years onto his career. Scuffet does still have time to live up to the hype that surrounded him earlier on in his career, but he’d likely like it to happen sooner rather than later.Italy’s current U21 goalkeepers are AC Milan’s Alessandro Plizzari, Sassuolo’s Stefano Turati, and Atlanta’s Marco Carnesecchi. Of the trio, Turati is the only goalkeeper to debut for his parent club; all three goalkeepers are, as of November 2021, out on loan. Carnesecchi appears to be the first choice for the young Azzurri side, but with the next major U23 tournament not until 2023, things could well change.Gianluigi Buffon has appeared ephemerally throughout this article. A spectre that draws Italian goalkeeping past, present, and future together, the 43-year-old continues to break records and is currently one of the oldest playing footballers in the world. Although now retired from the international stage, Buffon’s reputation precedes him and it is undoubted that he is the greatest Italian goalkeeper of all time.Only time will tell if that title will be translated into the greatest goalkeeper of all time.