Italian goalkeeper icon Gianluigi Buffon is returning to Parma, where his career started 26 years ago, in the dusk of his career to play second-division football there.
"I am back," the 43-year-old veteran said in a video the club tweeted on Thursday, with Parma saying: "He is back home" and "Superman returns."
Parma were relegated in the past season by finishing last in the Serie A.
Coming out of their academy Buffon was at Parma 1996-2001 before joining Juventus where he played until the end of the past season, with the exception of 2018-19 when he spent a season at Paris Saint-Germain.
Having made his debut aged 17 he won the UEFA Cup and the Ialian Cup with Parma. Juve paid a then goalkeeper record fee of around 52 million euros (63 million dollars) for Buffon who won 25 titles with them, 10 of them in the Serie A.
Buffon also loyally played in the second tier for one season at Juventus 2006-07 when they were demoted in connection with a match-fixing affair.
The 176-times capped Buffon is a 2006 World Cup winner.
