Why the Juventus almost never wins the Champions League? The fateful question reached the ears of those who had several opportunities to raise the Big Ears Cup to the sky as Gigi Buffoneternal Juventus goalkeeper now head of delegation of the Italian national team: “I’m talking about my three finals. Barcelona in 2015 and Real Madrid in 2017 were the strongest teams of the last twenty years. And in 2003 we still faced Shevchenko’s Milan “, he replied in the long interview granted to Corriere della Sera.
Lost on penalties and a few months later Buffon, as he reveals in his autobiography, he fell into depression: “It was the end of 2003, the championship had started well, then we began to lose momentum and enthusiasm. We had just won two championships in a row: after the up, the down. A void opened up before me. I began to sleep badly. I would go to bed and feel anxious, thinking I wouldn’t sleep a wink.”
Until he felt ill on the pitch too: “A panic attack. I felt pressure in my chest, I couldn’t breathe, I thought I would never want to be there and I would never be able to play the match.” Finally telling how he came out of this dark tunnel: “I refused the drugs. I would have needed them, but I was afraid of becoming dependent on them. I only went to the psychotherapist three or four times, but he gave me valuable advice: cultivate other interests, don’t focus entirely on football.”