Turin - Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has no immediate plans to retire and said it would be a waste to quit now when he feels he is still in top form.
“A player stops when he feels that he is no longer what he was before on the pitch,” Buffon, 37, told reporters after Juventus beat Monaco 1-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday.
“Looking at it objectively, that is not my case. I will continue to keep playing as long as I am doing well, otherwise it would be a waste. Why bid farewell to football if you are playing well?”
“At the first sign of slipping, I would be the first to bow out. I think one should stop playing when goes onto the field and you see that you are no longer the same person,” he added.
Buffon, who has helped Juventus win three successive Serie A titles and is still Italy's first-choice goalkeeper, made three important saves to deny Monaco an away goal in Tuesday's game.
Buffon joined Juventus from Parma in 2001, and stayed with them even after they were demoted to Serie B following the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal in 2006, the same year he helped Italy win the World Cup. – Reuters