As well as starring on the field, the Portugal legend’s attitude behind the scenes in Turin has encouraged the veteran goalkeeper
Cristiano Ronaldo’s humility and attitude towards his Juventus team-mates have impressed Gianluigi Buffon as much as his evident skill.
Ronaldo joined Serie A giants Juve in 2018, bringing to an end a hugely successful nine years at Real Madrid, and won the Scudetto in his first campaign in Italy.
Club icon Buffon has returned to Turin for the 2019-20 season, too, and has immediately been struck by the humble approach of one of the sport’s great names.
“When I met Cristiano in Turin for training, I discovered a very humble guy,” Buffon told reporters at the Festival dello Sport.
“I like his attitude and his relationship with our team-mates a lot. Very often, after training, we spend a couple of minutes talking in deep about some aspects of the game.
“I discovered a very nice person besides the footballer.”
Very strong performance by the team!
Great feeling to be on the top of the table again!#finoallafine #forzajuve #liveahead pic.twitter.com/bSi0g4f4zM— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 7, 2019
Ronaldo joined Juve just months after extending their painful wait for a Champions League triumph with three goals across the two legs of Madrid’s quarter-final win.
The tie included one of the competition’s great goals in Italy as Ronaldo executed a stunning overhead kick, beating Buffon for a strike the goalkeeper now acknowledges he could only admire.
“This is one of those moments that shows that I don’t hate anyone,” Buffon said. “After the first 25 seconds, when I felt really frustrated, I thought about the beauty of his goal.
“Despite being scored against us, I could not fail to recognise he just did something extraordinary.
“So when he walked beside him, I just asked him, ‘Cristiano, how old are you?’ He, smiling, replied, ‘I’m 33… not bad, right?’ And we both started laughing.”
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