A Serie A legend has likened Angel Di Maria playing in the league to when Diego Maradona featured in the Italian top flight.
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Now 34 years old, Di Maria is without a football club for the 2022/23 season after it was confirmed the winger would not be extending his contract with Paris Saint-Germain.
The Argentine is not without potential suitors, however, with Juventus and Barcelona heavily linked with the skilled forward, and now multiple-Scudetto winner Gianluigi Buffon has proclaimed that Di Maria will be a success should he make his way to southern Europe.
Buffon's sole season away from Serie A was spent playing alongside the 2021 Copa America winner in the French capital in the 2018/19 campaign, and he believes Di Maria can become a talismanic figure for Italy's top division, much like his compatriot Maradona.
"Di Maria in Serie A is like Maradona," Buffon told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"Football players need to be looked at where they play. Serie A, today, is very poor and Angel has a lot of talent.
"He has a straightforward decision in front of goal, playing his opponents. He's good at assisting, and running up and down the pitch. He can play different roles."
The 2006 FIFA World Cup winner also dismissed any notion that age could nullify Di Maria's talent.
"I'm 44, but I'm still playing, age doesn't matter. Motivation and love are very important, as well as determination," Buffon added.
"If Di Maria joins Juventus, it means he is ready. He's a role model, never giving up and fighting during games and coaching sessions. In today's Serie A, he's like Maradona.
"At PSG, I played with Neymar, young Kylian Mbappe, Marco Verratti.
"When he won the Decima (10th Champions League title) in Madrid in 2014, he played with Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos.
"He was always backing away from them but he could play as a fullback, an attacking midfielder and even a 'mezzala' (a wide-ranging midfielder who plays in the middle of a diamond pitch or three players).
"Anyone's going to sign him, and I hope it's Juve, it'll be fine. We're talking about a champion."
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