Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 7y

Gianluigi Donnarumma can match Italy legend Gianluigi Buffon - Romagnoli

Italy defender Alessio Romagnoli says that Gianluigi Buffon is the best goalkeeper ever, but believes Gianluigi Donnarumma can go on to have a similar career to the 39-year-old.

Donnarumma is set to become the youngest goalkeeper to start for his country when Italy face Netherlands in a friendly on Tuesday night. The 18-year-old has already appeared for Italy, but has not yet featured in the starting XI for his country.

That is set to change on Tuesday and Romagnoli has tipped him to have as glorious a career as Buffon, who made his 1,000th appearance in Italy's 2-0 win over Albania on Friday.

"I think that Buffon is the best goalkeeper of all time and he is an example both on the field and off it," Romagnoli said at a news conference. "Gigio [Donnarumma] has a great deal of quality and I hope that he can enjoy a career like the Juventus goalkeeper.

"On the one hand, we have got the best goalkeeper of all time, and on the other we have one who can become it. Whenever you have Buffon in goal behind you, you really do feel like you have a steel wall protecting you."

Donnarumma has already made 65 appearances for club and country in a career which started just over 18 months ago, when he was given his debut by Sinisa Mihajlovic in AC Milan's 2-1 win over Sassuolo.

Since then, he has not missed a single league game for the Rossoneri.

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