Just one phone call from new Juventus boss Antonio Conte to Gianluigi Buffon was all it took to convince the Italian international to stay at the Bianconeri in the summer of 2011.
The season of 2010-2011 was a very tough season for Juventus, one which they would want to forget as the Juventus goal keeper was pondering his exit from the Old Lady.
“I was expecting a call from Conte,” the now 35-year-old stated to Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday. “He told me some beautiful and important things.
“In the previous season, which was the first under the presidency of Andrea Agnelli, I hardly played in the first half of the campaign because of injury and I wasn’t myself in the second.
“My head was elsewhere,” the club captain, who needed back surgery after the 2010 World Cup, added. “I thought the time had come for me to change, to leave Juventus.
“However then the new directors and I got to know each other better and their opinion of me changed. To have the maturity to fix relationships after some disagreements bonds you even more.
“That telephone call from Conte was important and, from that moment, I was even more of a Juventino than I was before.”
Buffon has pledged his future with the current Italian champions until June 2015 and has really been the rock of Turin once former captain Alessandro Del Piero had left for Sydney FC.
The Italian international remains the number one choice between the sticks for the Azzurri as he looks to compete for another world cup tournament next year in Rio.
Follow Peter Crepaz on twitter: @Crepaz10
