GIANLUIGI BUFFON will become the 29th player to make 100 Champions League appearances.
And the legendary goalkeeper is the first player to achieve that landmark that did not turn out for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, AC Milan, Chelsea, Arsenal or Bayern Munich.
The 28 current centurions all played regularly for at least one of those European giants.
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Juventus host Lyon tonight which will bring the 100 up for Buffon, having made his debut for Parma way back in 1997.
The 38-year-old would have had many more had he not remained loyal to the Bianconeri after relegation for match-fixing in 2006.
He has reached the final on two occasions, losing against Milan in 2003 and Barcelona in 2015.
Fellow N0.1, Iker Casillas, tops the appearance list — he is expected to play his 160th match against Club Brugge tonight.
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The Spanish stopper spent the majority of his time with Real Madrid, where he won the Champions League on three occasions, but is now at Porto.
Xavi is next on 151 appearances, with his last coming in the victorious 2015 final against Buffon’s Juve.
It was the Barcelona midfielder’s fourth Champions League victory — which is a record he shares with team-mates Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi in the tournament’s modern format.
Ryan Giggs is next in line with 145 games — while there are six Englishmen on the list, with Paul Scholes topping that particular list on 124.
Gary Neville and John Terry (109), Ashley Cole (108), David Beckham (107) and Frank Lampard (105) are the others.
As well as Casillas, Cristiano Ronaldo (130), Iniesta (117), Xabi Alonso (114), Petr Cech (111), Messi (108), Philipp Lahm (107) and Patrice Evra (105) are adding to their tallies in this campaign.
While Zlatan Ibrahimovic will have to help United qualify for next season’s Champions League, to ensure he can add to his 119 matches.
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