Serie A Always speaks his mind

Gianluigi Buffon will always be remembered for his ability in between the sticks, but his various comments over the years will also live long in the memory.

Whether he's talking about fascism, depression, betting or refereeing decisions, he has never been afraid to speak his mind.

These are his most famous and controversial comments.

Accusations of fascism

Buffon was accused of being a fascist after writing a slogan of Benito Mussolini on his shirt while playing for Parma. He insisted that he didn't know what the words meant.

"They are negative experiences in life that serve to mature you," he told El Pais in 2013.

"I'm not ashamed of myself because I didn't do it in bad faith. When I failed, I did it because of ignorance, not to send messages to the outside.

"Mistakes are important because they remind you that you are human. They will remind you that you know nothing, my friend. It's important because the football world tries to convince you that you're special, but it reminds you that you're no different to a barman or an electrician."

Suffering from depression

While at the top of his game, Buffon fell into a state of depression at the age of 26.

"Rich and famous, but depression attacked me. I wasn't satisfied with life or football. I felt a black hole in my soul," he wrote in his autobiography.

"If you live in a nihilistic way and you only focus on football, your soul will start to change. Eventually, you're so depressed that you no longer want to get out of bed," he said in The Players' Tribune.

"In those days, you'll receive three things that are very, very intoxicating, but also very, very dangerous: money, fame and your dream job.

"One morning, when you get out of bed to go to training, your legs will start to shake without control. You'll be so weak that you won't be able to drive your car. At the start, you'll think that you're just tired. But then it gets worse. All you want to do is sleep. For seven months, you'll have difficulties finding joy in your life. Your routine can become a prison."

"It was good for me because now I'm not scared of facing difficult times with my family or at work. You get through it yourself, by talking," he told El Pais.

Betting problems

Buffon was investigated for corruption during the Italian match-fixing scandal.

"I won't bet again. I went into some betting markets, but not ones related to football. When they linked me with the scandal, they shamed me because they put my sporting loyalty in doubt," he said in 2006.

Infidelity

In 2017, Alena Seredova, Buffon's ex-wife and mother of his two children, confessed to newspapers that the goalkeeper had cheated on her with Ilaria D'Amico.

"I'd liked to have found out that my marriage was broken in a different way than through the press," Seredova said.

Breaking the speed limit

After uploading a photo of him driving his car while at Paris Saint-Germain, Buffon was caught out for a number of things.

People spotted that he was driving over the speed limit at 150km/h, he was wearing headphones and he had a packet of cigarettes in the driver's door pocket.

That Bernabeu penalty

When Medhi Benatia was penalised for bringing down Lucas Vazquez in the 18-yard box at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Buffon took his anger out on the referee.

The goalkeeper fumed at Michael Oliver and was subsequently sent off before Cristiano Ronaldo put the penalty past Wojciech Szczesny.

"If you give that penalty, you're not a man, you're an animal," Buffon told Oliver.

Apologies

"I regret offending the referee. If I'd have seen him two days after, I would've hugged him, telling him my thoughts about the penalty. I'm not resentful, I'm at peace," Buffon said afterwards.