Iker Casillas: Best Goalkeeper Ever?
We’ve never been ones to shy away from the big debates in football, so here’s one to sink your teeth into: Having watched Spain triumph in South Africa and witnessed their keeper win the final’s most valuable player award, is Iker Casillas now the best goalie in history?
Iker Casillas’s recent accomplishments place him in an exclusive group of goalkeeping legends. Very few goalkeepers have captained their country to World Cup glory. Of the 18 previous World Cup winning captains, only two were keepers: the late great Gianpiero Combi raised the trophy for Italy in 1934; and Dino Zoff achieved the same feat with the Azzurri in 1982.
As captain of his nation in South Africa, Iker Casillas continually exhibited the kind of determination, agility and reliability that has had Real Madrid fans drooling for the best part of a decade. His consistent performances in between the sticks saw the Spanish captain scoop the World Cup’s best goalkeeper award, the Golden Glove.
During the course of Spain’s 7-match assault on the World Cup, Casillas kept five clean sheets, conceded two goals, and saved a crucial penalty in the quarter final against Paraguay. In the Final against the Netherlands, with the score delicately balanced at 0-0, Casillas faced one of the world’s most skilful dribblers, Arjen Robben, in a one-on-one situation, twice. He came away with the ball on both occasions.
It is also worth mentioning that despite conceding very few goals, Spain weren’t actually that prolific at the other end either. They scored a paltry 8 goals – the lowest by any World Cup winners in history. All four of their knockout matches were won by a single goal to nil which raises the question, what if Iker Casillas hadn’t been the best in the world?
There have been a number of outstanding goalkeepers over the years: Lev Yashin, Gordon Banks, Ricardo Zamora, Jose Luis Chilavert, and Peter Schmeichel to name but a few. Only a handful of those greats have ever won the World Cup and none of them have won the World Cup and the European Championships. Señor Casillas, stand up and take a bow.
Best goalkeeper ever Casillas cements his place in the history books
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I don’t know if I would say that he’s necessarily the best goalkeeper ever, but certainly to me he’s the most valuable. The one you want on your team the most. Maybe not the fastest, most athletic, or most spatially aware… but still, the one who’s going to make the save when it counts.
Mentally he just might be the best. The guy’s clutch.
Yashin by a mile. To be fair, keepers like Schmeichel never won the world cup because the rest of their team was terrible. Casillas wouldn’t have done it either if it hadn’t been for such a brilliant side in front of him.