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Past, present, and future: Buffon, Donnarumma meeting has makings of epochal moment

Phil Noble / Reuters

Roberto Baggio couldn't beat him. Nor could George Weah. The two legendary attackers, Ballon d'Or winners who were no strangers to finding the net, were helpless to stop a gangly teenager from etching his name into Italian lore with a clean sheet in his first-ever Serie A appearance.

That was 20 years ago, almost to the day.

So many others have come to share that same, defeated feeling over the past two decades. More will yet.

Related: 20 years ago, Gianluigi Buffon made his Serie A debut

Juventus icon Gianluigi Buffon, his beard now graying, has long established himself as one of the greatest goalkeepers in football history - perhaps, as Juventus fans will attest with vigour, the very best. That trophy-laden journey to the top began in 1995, when, at only 17 years, nine months, and 21 days old, Buffon's spectacular debut between the sticks helped Parma earn a goalless draw against juggernaut, and eventual Scudetto winner, AC Milan.

"He was Parma's best player," Fabio Capello, Milan's bench boss at the time, claimed after the contest. "We should have won but the fact that we didn't is down to Buffon."

Many managers have, in a tone of either astonishment or disappointment, echoed similar sentiments since that day at the Ennio Tardini. Even at 37-years-old, the goalkeeper known as Superman - affectionately by Juventus fans, profanely by supporters of the opposition - remains a dexterous, almost impervious force of nature between the posts. A half-step slower than his very best, perhaps, but let's not forget that mere months ago, the all-time Italian caps leader was solely responsible for the Bianconeri not being obliterated in the Champions League final against Barcelona.

As Italian football writer James Horncastle notes, Buffon, the son of two athletes, always knew it would be so.

He felt ready for the highest level even in his mid-teens. Upon hearing that his mentor, Ermes Fulgoni, the legendary goalkeeping coach of Parma's academy, had been going around telling anyone who would listen that "this kid will be starting in Serie A by the age of 20," Buffon turned to him and said: "What will I do until then?"

Saturday, when, ironically enough, Buffon meets Milan again in what has the feeling of another epochal moment, he'll stand opposite a record-breaking shot-stopper who didn't have to wait quite that long either.

His namesake, Gianluigi Donnarumma, actually needed slightly less time.

Now Milan's first-choice 'keeper, displacing the struggling Diego Lopez and the ancient Christian Abbiati, Donnarumma became the youngest to ever start a Serie A match earlier this year when, at 16 years and 8 months old, he was thrust into the lineup against Sassuolo - a team that has been the ire of the Rossoneri in recent years - at a time when Milan was languishing, sitting 14th in the table and without a win in three consecutive matches.

While not down entirely to him, of course - a 'keeper can only do so much - the club has now won four straight games, keeping its first two clean sheets of the campaign and leaping like a salmon up to sixth in the table.

Mistakes were made along the way, sure. Domenico Berardi's free-kick in that aforementioned debut should have been stopped by the gigantic, 6-foot-5 netminder. It wasn't.

But, as Mihajlovic scoffed at critical reporters, "What were you doing when you were 16?" We can say, with absolute certainty, that it damn well wasn't this - a Man of the Match performance against Atalanta, easily Donnarumma's best to date, just prior to the international break:

Saturday brings an opportunity to define the early stage of his career: a chance to meet, impress, and outshine his hero, the man whose career he hopes to emulate. Donnarumma plans on marking the occasion. With a win, and with a souvenir.

"I hope to swap shirts with him on Saturday. Playing against Gigi gives me extra motivation," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

He's saying all the right things, showing the appropriate level of respect for his opponent every step of the way. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

The similarities between the two are palpable, and extend beyond their respective abilities to keep a spherical leather object from eluding their enormous grasps. Young, talented, emitting a cool demeanour to the rest of the team. The comparisons, especially this week, are unavoidable.

"I have been given a lot of responsibility, but I can deal with that. I try to transmit a sense of calm to the team while continuing to play my game. Buffon is my idol. My dream is to become a regular in the senior national team and follow in his footsteps. Anyone would love to have a career like his."

Few have. Few will. It's early, of course, but Donnarumma, judging by the excited proclamations of the club's brass, could well be that man. Er, boy.

“Milan is the team of my heart and my dream is to one day become its 'bandiera' (emblem),” the teenager, a lifelong fan of the club" said before the season began.

Should his career replicate that of his hero, Donnarumma's name will long inspire reference to another emblem: the one that belongs, for now, to Buffon alone. At that point, we would merely need to find a sizeable cape upon which to emblazon the iconic logo.

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