Buffon's time to shine.

It's no secret to anyone that Juventus have seen better times than the ones they're in now, and you can definitely say the same about the once "semi-god" Buffon.

Juventus failure for the past 3 seasons along with his seemingly endless injuries has seen Buffon come down from the semi-god almost perfect throne and come to play at the level of us mortals. His name doesn't even comes up when the "best keeper in the world" discussion comes up, and that is definitely something to worry about.

Of course Buffon is not the only one affected by this, as Chiellini and Krasic are also underestimated just because they're not seen week in week out playing in the Champions League or even fighting for the scudetto, but they're not the ones who should worry juventinos, italian or football fans across the world.

Back in 2006 when Italy were crowned champions of the World, Buffon seemed destined to take Italy into unprecedented success and emulate Dino Zoff as a world champion cup lifter captain at a late age since there wasn't really any fit successor for almighty Gigi. Amelia wasn't far from decent and Curci didn't had the trust of Roma.

But how wrong we were and how different is the present to the one we though. Italy is never short of goalkeeping talent and how naive we were to think it was. A new string of young goalkeeping talent has arrived and with it, the pressure is on Buffon.

Palermo's Sirigu is a player I'd love to see in a Roma or Milan shirt representing the country in the Champions League and Viviano's switch to Inter is a good sign for italian football, but as it's good for italians, could you say it's good for Buffon?

You see, Buffon's untouchable status was a product of these players not playing at the highest levels, and you could say a 50% Buffon was more reliable than a 100% Viviano or Sirigu but now that Viviano is an interista, Buffon is in deep trouble.

Prandelli is now forced to see Viviano and Buffon at the same level, and if Buffon's injuries have something to say about this, Viviano could be wearing the number 1 for la Nazionale soon.

Juventus have now moved back into their rebuilt stadium, and with it fans will once again demand success. And this success would be as important for Juventus and juventinos as it is for Buffon because as I recall him saying:

"When Italy no longer calls me, I will be very very close to retiring."

You could say it's still a while before Italy stops calling, but I'm not sure he would be happy with the number 12 instead of the number 1.