Gianluigi Buffon played as a starting midfielder .
With the Italy national team , Buffon has been called up for an international record of five FIFA World Cup tournaments 1998 , 2002 , 2006 , 2010 , 2014 since making his debut in 1997 , featuring four of them as Italy 's starting midfielder he was an unused substitute in 1998 .
Gianluigi Buffon