Juventini reassure ‘Superman’ Buffon

In a World Cup Qualifying match on October 6, Italy’s long-serving goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon completely misjudged an oncoming ball and saw it go past him as Spain scored a goal.

Although Italy would go on to tie the match, the mistake -- an addition to a very short list in Buffon’s 19-year international tenure -- was pointed to as the decline of a hulking great of Italian football.

Even Buffon himself came out and said that it was ‘one of the worst mistakes’ of his career, but faith in the stalwart seems unshaken in Turin, where his boyhood club Juventus presented him with a beautiful banner behind the goal.

“Even Superman is just Clark Kent sometimes, Gigi Buffon is always our Superman," read the long banner.

The banner will not provide the 39-year-old keeper with much consolation, but it is yet another grand gesture from the Juventini for their hero.

Italy midfielder Daniel De Rossi, who plays for Buffon’s Serie A rivals AS Roma, said after the game against Italy that even the best can make mistakes.

“The best goalkeeper in history can make mistakes too, otherwise he'd be a machine. I'd have preferred he made a mistake for Juventus rather than Italy, but you can't have everything!” De Rossi had said.