UEFA
Buffon to receive President’s Award at Thursday’s Champions League draw
The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League new 36 team format league phase draw will be held in Monaco on Thursday, 29 August.
Thursday’s Champions League draw at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco (start time 12:00 pm ET) will be more than just balls being drawn from bowls and supercomputers doing their thing in selecting the four home and away opponents each team will now play as part of the new 36 league phase which replaces the traditional group phase.
During the course of the ceremony, UEFA will also hand out a series of awards relating to the 2024-25 Champions League season with: Goalkeeper of the Season, Defender of the Season, Midfielder of the Season, Forward of the Season, Player of the Season and Coach of the Season awards to be distributed.
2024 President’s Award
The highlight of the award element of the draw is inevitably the prestigious UEFA President’s Award (recognising outstanding achievements, professional excellence and exemplary personal qualities) which this year goes to former Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon.
Making 176 international appearances with the Azzurri, Buffon is the most capped goalkeeper of all time, the most capped player in the history of the Italy national team and the fourth-most capped European player ever.
Buffon won a record ten Serie A titles, the 1999 UEFA Cup, six Coppa Italia trophies and Ligue 1 during a club career which took him from Parma to Juventus and back, with a short spell with Paris Saint-Germain. He was also an instrumental figure for Italy when the Azzurri won the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin will be present in Monaco on Thursday evening to present the Italian with the accolade and Buffon will join an elite list of players to have been accredited with the prestigious award including: Paolo Maldini, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Bobby Charlton, Eric Cantona and many more.