Gianluigi Buffon - My merciless and bold No 1

Tonight’s Champions League final is a stage for extravagant attacking talents — but for this netminder, the real storyline is between the posts for the Old Lady of Turin, writes Dónal Óg Cusack.

When the Nazis built the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, they created a special seating area for their top party officials and for Hitler. Many years later, with the stadium in decline the local athletics organisers used to amuse themselves by ushering Primo Nebiolo, then the head of world athletics, into Hitler’s old seat on Grand Prix nights.

They used to say the same sort of things about Nebiolo then as they do now about Blatter.