A number of players can stake a claim for being part of the best team in the world at this early period of the European domestic leagues. However, very few players standout the way those listed below have in terms of their contribution to their team, their role as leaders, and certainly their crucial involvement in their respective clubs.

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Written by Gareth Freeman, a sports writer promoting Irish racing and Cheltenham tips for Betfair

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The transfer rumour mill is already kicking up plenty of transfer rumours regarding United and their rivals but just how busy can we expect Sir Alex to be?

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With much of the qualification process almost complete and South Africa 2010 looming large, it would make sense to assess some of the world's best custodians who will be present during the World Cup. Goalkeepers such as Petr Cech will be excluded from the discussion since their nation failed to qualify for next summer's big event.

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Sir Alex is reportedly considering replacing one world class keeper with another.

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Manchester United and Bayern Munich are both mulling moves for Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, according to reports in Italy.

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Según el diario italiano Tuttosport, el Bayern Munich estaría a la búsqueda de un portero consagrado para este mercado invernal.

Se habla nada más y nada menos que de Gianluigi Buffon, considerado por muchos como el mejor portero del mundo en la actualidad.

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Juventus were keen on showing their strength right from the word go, and had a couple of chances go without a goal early on. Bianconeri goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made two consecutive saves that kept the visitors in the game, as a corner from Yaniv Katan eventually fell to Vladimer Dvalishvili, who produced a brilliant save from [. Click to continue reading...

This is, of course, Gianluigi Buffon. World Cup winner with Italy in 2006. Any resemblance to the creepy uncle you won't allow to babysit is entirely coincidental. (Photo: Reuters) (Thanks, Aaron!) Click to continue reading...

FIFA has announced its 23-man shortlist for World Player of the Year. Lets discuss who we think should win and why.

Michael Ballack
Gianluigi Buffon
Iker Casillas
Diego
Didier Drogba
Michael Essien
Samuel Eto'o
Steven Gerrard
Thierry Henry
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Andres Iniesta
Kaka
Frank Lampard
Luis Fabiano
Lionel Messi
Carles Puyol
Franck Ribery
Cristiano Ronaldo
Wayne Rooney
John Terry
Fernando Torres
David Villa
Xavi

Club-wise distribution

Chelsea 5
Manchester United 1
Liverpool 2
Valencia 1
Barcelona 6
Real Madrid 3
Sevilla 1
Inter 1
Juventus 2
Bayern Munich 1
Arsenal 0

Oh wait !

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This morning Man United striker Wayne Rooney has been shortlisted for the FIFA World Player Of The Year award. He has been named alongside other English Premier League stars Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and John Terry.
Other Premier League players named are Michael Ballack, Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres and Michael Essien. Click to continue reading...

The Beauty: Alena Seredova is not telepathic, but I think she can communicate without talking. It is her brilliant eyes. As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words", and the one of Alena to the left is no exception. She communicates a lot with her look, like "I'm so much hotter than you".

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Most of the heavy favourites have already qualified for the World Cup due next summer in South Africa. Previous World Cup winners such as Brazil, Germany, England, Argentina and Italy (also current WC Winners) all booked their spot in South Africa following a long and arduous road. Some teams such as Argentina have struggled while others such as England have cruised, yet the World Cup stage is a different playing field and previous results will not count.

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Juventus v Fiorentina
Saturday 17 October 2009
Stadio Olimpico
Serie A
18:00 CET

Juventus haven't won a game in several weeks and are desperately searching for the form that their talented squad and pre-season expectations demanded. They face in-form Fiorentina, who beat Liverpool in the Champions League recently, and will be hoping that home advantage counts in their favor.

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• The Dinho is this year's winner of the Golden Foot award... and yes, you're looking at his lovely feet. All you haters better sit down and congratulate him for all the hard work he's done this year! Anyway, the award is typically given to an outstanding individual who is approaching his 30s.

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Republic of Ireland v Italy
Saturday 10 October 2009, Croke Park
Kick-Off: 20:00 BST

The Republic of Ireland host group leaders Italy at Croke Park on Saturday night, knowing that a win would put them within one point of their opponents with a single qualifying match remaining.

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Blaming the goalkeeper is Ferguson's favorite past time. You'd be hard-pressed to find a goalkeeper in his tenure that hasn't received his famous hairdryer treatment. Save Mossimo Taibi, who seemed to be doomed upon arrival at Old Trafford. Even Peter Schmeichel confessed he was on the receiving end of a face full of words often in his career. Click to continue reading...

News today that Newcastle United's 21 year-old second string goalkeeper, Tim Krul, is wanted by Juventus. Tim Krul Newcastle's future number one Of course Juventus currently have Italian great Gianluigi Buffon as their goalkeeper, but Tim is certainly attracting attention as one of the best young goalkeepers currently on the scene. Click to continue reading...

I always like to watch videos of bloopers, and this time I've found a Serie A blooper video from the early 2000's. Always entertaining, and it includes a mistake from Buffon!! (how often do you see those?)

Video after the jump.

And since we're on the topic of Buffon mistakes, here's another one I remember from a couple of years ago:

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I am really curious about the Livorno players' high jersey numbers. They started with only Nico Pulzetti sporting a single digit number. It reminded me of a spring training baseball team loaded with minor leaguers trying to make the big squad.  The game featured lots of end to end action in this game, and the teams were relatively evenly matched, save for two players: Gianlugi Buffon and Mauro Camoranesi.

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For those who spent Saturday and Sunday away from the television and internet, or were too busy watching the Manchester Derby, here are some lessons we have learned (or in some cases relearned) from this past weekend's Serie A action:

Gianluigi Buffon is the key for a Juve scudetto: Although he has some mileage between his numerous Serie A and international matches, and the Juventus attack is quite good, the 2-0 Juventus win over Livorno shows that Buffon still dominates matches for his team.

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Brilliant goalkeeping by Gianluigi Buffon. Juve gets a fortuitous lead when Cedric Carraso fails to stop Vincezo Iaqunita. Fifteen minutes before end Jaroslav Plaisil sneaks in to tap the ball home for the equalizer after the defense goes to sleep.

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With Brazilian striker Amauri close to becoming an Italian citizen, it looks like Bayern Munich's Luca Toni will find it quite hard to represent Italy in South Africa. Azzurri Boss Marcello Lippi has hinted on more than one occasion that Amauri will be very useful for the national team.

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The Serie A Game to Watch this week features the only matchup of two teams in the top four in the standings. Although it is only the third week of the season (sorry Sampdoria fans), both Lazio and Juventus are eyeing a possible scudetto and this match could keep one club's early momentum going.

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Italy won against Georgia on the strength of two beautiful own goals by Kakha Kaladze. The Georgians looked stunned by his stealth attacks.

The Milan defender must have been overwhelmed by the dominant Juve presence and decided to do something about it. I think he just sabotaged his own Milan career.

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Let's a take a quick gander over the Champions League draw:
Group A: Bayern, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa. This is an interesting group as three clubs sort of "left behind" recently by European success find themselves grouped together. That said, any group that features Yoann Gourcouff, Franck Ribéry, Gianluigi Buffon, etc. Click to continue reading...

This is Mrs Gianluigi Buffon, and the chances are you have seen her before but she is worth taking a second glance over!

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Let me just start out by saying that I have never liked Goal.com (the English version at least. The Italian version is actually pretty good because it just posts articles from Italian newspapers, so at least you know you're reading from a source). The English version always seems to have stories without sources that look like they were just thought up at that instant and posted, and I have never liked their opinions on Italian calcio.

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Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Carlos Tevez, and Emmanuel Adebayor! Such is the caliber of each of these players that their involvement in this summer's transfer market has left no spotlight for the lesser-known talent. Such is the nature of the market right now that none of the European giants can be bothered with a move for the hidden gems.

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The new 2009-10 kits for Italian giants Juventus have been released. The new Juve kits are manufactured by Nike ( see logo in picture below). New Holland Fiat Group are the jersey sponsors. Juventus came third in the Italian Serie A last season. The home shorts are white with black stripes running down the side, while [. Click to continue reading...

To fans of Calcio it's still as vivid as ever: The vision of Fabio Cannavaro lifting the World Cup aloft remains the proudest of Italian memories in a difficult recent history. But with one year to go before the 19th World Cup Final, Cannavaro and his Azzurri have a lot of hard work to do if the national team are to avoid an embarrassing fate in their defence of the trophy.

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It's that time of the season where people start thinking of dream teams and fantasy signings and with that in mind take a look at this attempt at a best ever World Cup XI, pretty good team as well. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon - the most expensive and the best goalkeeper in the ... Click to continue reading...

Brazil Cruises into the Semi finals, Sets up date with South Africa
Kaka shoots at Italian goal - Image from Reuters

Brazil maintained their 100% record at the 2009 Confederations Cup as they made light work of Italy, sweeping the World champions aside with ease in a commanding 3-0 win at the Loftus Stadium on Sunday night.

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Egypt stunned Italy 1-0 with a header by Mohamed Homos on Thursday, leaving the world champions with an uphill battle to reach the Confederations Cup semifinals. The African champions easily neutralized Italy's revamped forward line and surprised the World Cup holders in the 40th minute when Homos outjumped Daniele De Rossi and beat goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon with a header off the inside of the post. Click to continue reading...

Egyptian Italian Job - Image from Associated Press

Egypt experienced one of their greatest moments on the international football stage when they upset World Champions Italy 1-0 in a Confederations Cup group B game played in Johannesburg on Thursday night.

It could well be argued that the African champions were full value for their half-time lead, but the second stanza was however a different story as the European side had numerous excellent scoring chances, only to be denied time and time again by sensational goal keeping by an inspired Essam Al-Hadari, who made several heroic saves to preserve the slender lead.

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image from Associated Press
World Champions Italy came back from a goal down to beat a spirited 10 man USA side by three goals to one in another great game of football at Loftus Stadium in Pretoria Stadium on Monday night. The crowd were once again amazing with a very cosmopolitan turn out of black, white, Indian, American and even Asian fans all joining together in celebration of the beautiful game. Click to continue reading...

When the final whistle sounded in the Confederations Cup match between the United States and Italy, Americans had found the back of the net three different times. Unfortunately for Bob Bradley's squad, however, only one of those came from a player wearing U.S. colors, as New Jersey-born Giuseppe Rossi struck twice to power Italy to a 3-1 victory on Monday. Click to continue reading...