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Whether it's because of his heroics against Fiorentina a couple of weeks ago or that he's just extended his contract for another season, we've talked a lot about Gianluigi Buffon lately. And, as I play my Buffon Bias/Goalkeeper Card here, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's Buffon, and talking about him is never not a bad thing.
Guess what? We're not going to stop talking about him, either.
Buffon was voted as Juventus' MVP for the 2015-16 campaign in a vote by fans of the club. Some might have said baby-faced star striker Paulo Dybala was the team's most valuable player this season, but I won't squabble over this. Juventus had a tweet announcing the news of Buffon's latest and greatest individual award, so I clicked on it. This is what it had to tell us about why Buffon is the MVP this season:
There were marvellous milestones such as setting a new Serie A record for minutes without conceding (973), overtaking Gaetano Scirea as the second most capped player in the club's history and equalling his personal record for clean sheets in a single season (21).
There were also simply spectacular saves, the double block on Milan's Mario Balotelli and the dramatic parry of Nikola Kalinic's penalty-kick against Fiorentina particularly poignant as the Bianconeri closed in on an historic fifth successive Serie A title.
The MVP of a #HI5TORY making year. It could only be @gianluigibuffon. #NumeroUno #G1G1https://t.co/CbnaybJtkw
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) May 12, 2016
I mean, they could have just said he's Gigi Buffon, dropped the mic and I would have been totally okay with it. But they chose to tell us about why Buffon is the MVP, and I won't stop them for doing so.
But Buffon is, well, Buffon and there's nothing that anybody else can do about it. The stats he's put up this season are simply remarkable when you consider both how Juventus started the season and the fact that he's 38 years old. Goalkeepers his age are either cashing checks as backups, or ready to hang up their gloves and head out on many weekends where the beaches are sunny and the people are incredibly tan.
Again, he's 38 years and still playing at a crazy-good level. No wonder he was voted the team MVP this season. It's pretty safe to say that the guy deserves it for how well he's played over the last eight-plus months.