Gianluigi Buffon waves to fans after the Euro quarterfinal match between Germany and Italy at the Stade Matmut Atlantique in Bordeaux, France, July 2, 2016. /CFP
Gianluigi Buffon announced his retirement from football on Wednesday, bringing down the curtain on a glorious career as one of the world's greatest-ever goalkeepers.
"That's all folks! You gave me everything. I gave you everything. We did it together," he posted in English on social media.
Buffon, 45, hangs up his gloves after two final years at Parma, the club where it all began nearly three decades ago when Italian football was Europe's gold standard.
He has a contract with Parma that runs until summer 2024, but he will not be a part of the Serie B club's bid to return to the top flight after two years away.
Buffon is a symbol of a halcyon age when the best footballers went to play in Serie A, and Italy developed dozens of world-class players.
Gianluigi Buffon is pictured inside a photo booth at the Best FIFA Football Awards at the London Palladium in London, England, October 23, 2017. /CFP
The former Italy captain has a record 176 caps for his country while also holding the record for Serie A matches played – 657, stretching back to 1995.
After bursting onto the scene as a 17-year-old, keeping out the likes of George Weah and Roberto Baggio in his Parma debut against AC Milan, Buffon won 27 major trophies.
The majority came over 19 seasons at Juventus, where he won 10 Serie A titles and five Italian Cups. He also won the UEFA Cup in 1999 for Parma as part of possibly the best team in the club's history.
Buffon also won Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain in 2019 before returning to Juve, but he will be most fondly remembered for Italy's victory at the 2006 World Cup.
He was one of the stars as an Azzurri team battered by the "Calciopoli" match-fixing scandal beat France on penalties after knocking out hosts Germany in the semifinals – the scandal would cost him as Juve keeper two league titles.
The incident signaled the start of the final curtain for a generation that had made Italy one of the world's dominant football nations, and as their fortunes slowly declined, he suffered the ignominy of two straight group stage exits before bowing out not long after failure to qualify for the 2018 tournament.
Buffon won his last trophy in his final season with Juve two years ago, lifting the Italian Cup alongside Federico Chiesa, 22 years after he triumphed with Parma alongside his teammate's father, Enrico.