TURIN, Italy — It was late one Saturday night when Nevio Scala, the manager of Parma, made his way to Gianluigi Buffon’s hotel room. He wanted to ask Buffon a question, even if he knew what the answer would be.
Buffon, 17 at the time, had been training with Parma’s senior team all week. The club’s regular goalkeeper, Luca Bucci, had been ruled out of that Sunday’s game with A.C. Milan, then widely regarded as the world’s finest team, and so the teenage Buffon had been drafted as a backup to the backup.
Ordinarily, Scala would simply have ordered Alessandro Nista — Parma’s experienced reserve goalkeeper — to step in for Bucci, but he could not ignore Buffon’s performances.