Helped Juventus regain promotion to Serie A after the 2006 Calciopoli match-fixing and betting scandal plunged Juventus into Serie B.
First league in with Juventus in 2002 being also his first season at the club having replaced Edwin van der Sar. His performance that season confirmed what first-year manager Marcello Lippi wanted from the then-budding goalie.
In a series of other firsts, he was named the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year in 2003, for the fourth time. Became the only goalkeeper in history to win [the now-defunct] UEFA MVP (also known as the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year) award. That was also the same year Buffon was named UEFA’s Best Goalkeeper of the Year and elected to the UEFA Team of the Year for the first time in his career. Buffon also won the prestigious IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper for the first time in his career. He was nominated for the 2003 Ballon d’Or award, a prize goalkeepers never win, and finished ninth.
At the start of Italy’s must -win World Cup qualifier match against Sweden, the crowd at the San Siro acted unsportsmanlike jeering the Swedish national anthem but Buffon bowed and clapped in support of the Anthem raising praises from allover the world. Italy proceeded to be eliminated.
