Federico Buffa is an Italian sports journalist, one of the main voices of the broadcaster Sky Sport. Born in Milan in 1959, after graduating in law, he debuted as commentator at Telereporter and, in the early 90s, at TV Koper Capodistria, where he worked alongside Flavio Tranquillo as a basketball commentator. The partnership between the two, which marked an exciting era in Italian sports journalism, continued for over a decade with NBA telecasts on Tele+ and later on Sky Sport. His remarkable narrative talents led him to present anthology programmes on topics related to sport, notably the cult programme Federico Buffa racconta, dedicated to the immortal champions of sport. It is within this format that Buffa, as noted by television critic Aldo Grasso, «proved to be an extraordinary narrator capable of making culture real, establishing connections, creating links, opening digressions.» After Storie mondiali (2014), a tale of ten memorable football matches written with Carlo Pizzigoni, in 2015 the theatre show Buffa racconta le Olimpiadi del '36 made its debut, which had a remarkably successful run throughout Italy for two years. His new adventure on Sky Sport started in September 2016, the triptych Federico Buffa racconta Muhammad Ali, filmed in places that were the sites of incredible sport and human history of the famous African American boxer. The material used for the miniseries and everything that was left out of the TV show was the basis for the book Muhammad Ali. Un uomo decisivo per uomini decisivi (2017), written together with Elena Catozzi. In 2018 he wrote – once again with Carlo Pizzigoni – the book Nuove storie mondiali.

(photo: © Festivaletteratura)