Top 5 Best Football Goalkeepers In The World
Top 5 best football goalkeepers in the world. The goalkeeper is the only player in football who can use his hands. They are responsible for keeping the ball out of their goal. So who are the top 5 World’s best goalkeepers of all time? Check them out below:
5. Peter Schmeichel
Denmark’s Peter Schmeichel is arguably the best goalkeeper in the history of the Premier League.
He had a glittering career that lasted from 1981 until 2003 and is best remembered for his hugely successful time in the Premier League with Manchester United – with whom he won countless trophies – and for helping Denmark to win the European Championships in 1992.
Schmeichel was born in Gladsaxe, a town on the outskirts of Copenhagen, and played for several local football teams before playing for Brøndby.
It was Schmeichel’s impressive performances with Brøndby that led to him being snapped up by Sir Alex Ferguson for Manchester United, the team Schmeichel supported as a boy.
When he joined Manchester United in 1991, he was fairly unknown to the other players but left eight years later as a prominent club ‘Great’ with Ferguson having described his £505,000 signing as the “bargain of the century”.
Schmeichel’s 6ft 3in height and imposing physique, prompting his ‘Great Dane’ nickname, were beneficial when conceiving the innovative ‘star-jump save’.
Although now a widely used move in goalkeeping, Schmeichel was reportedly the first to take on this technique with regularity, adopting skills from playing handball in Denmark.
Generally considered one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, Peter’s success earned him 24 major trophies and he has been featured amongst the ‘125 Greatest Living Footballers’ at the FIFA 100 celebrations and within the Football League 100 Legends. In 2001 Schmeichel was awarded an honorary MBE for his services to football.
Following his retirement from football, Schmeichel has remained in the public eye, in both sport and television. Peter presented the Champions League coverage in Denmark for 8 years, hosted the World Cup show for Russia TV in 2018, has presented a variety of entertainment shows for TV2, TV3 Denmark and Discovery international and regularly appears as an analyst on the Premier League channel and for the BBC on ‘Match of the Day’.
His son, Kasper Schmeichel, followed in his father’s footsteps and is also a professional goalkeeper, playing for Leicester City and Denmark.
4. Dino Zoff
Dino Zoff is one of the best goalkeepers the world has ever seen. He has set lots of records in Italian and world football. For instance he is the oldest player to win the World Cup.
In 1982 at the age of 40 he could collect the trophy as captain of Italy’s team. And he is also the goalkeeper to have kept a clean sheet the longest time, from September 1972 to June 1974 he was unbeaten. Haiti, of all nations, ended the run in the 1974 World Cup.
Dino Zoff played most of his career in Napoli and Juventus and he played for Italy a record 112 times. In 1968 he was a member of Italy’s European Championship winning team, but he was dropped for the Mexico World Cup two years later.
Albertosi was preferred in goal in the tournament where Italy were runners-up. In 1974 Zoff was back in Italy’s team, but despite his superb run of no goals conceded, Italy went out in the group stage.
By the 1978 World Cup Dino Zoff and Italy were among the favorites, they even beat the eventual winners and host nation Argentina in the group stage.
But in a decisive final round match against Holland, Arie Haan’s 40 yard shot sent Italy out. They played Brazil in the bronze match and lost there too.
But 1982 was to be Dino Zoff’s year, in his final World Cup he had success. After a slow start with only draws in the group stage, Italy then beat Argentina, Brazil, Poland and West Germany in consecutive matches and became worthy champions.
As many other players, Dino Zoff stayed in football after he finished playing and he has, among several jobs, been manager of Lazio in Rome and in December 1999) national team coach for Italy.
3. Iker Casillas
Iker Casillas is a Spanish professional footballer. He plays as a goalkeeper. He is currently the 1st choice Spanish goalkeeper. He plays for FC porto.
He previously played for Real Madrid. Iker Casillas is considered one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He captained Spain to a World Cup and two European Cups.
Iker Casillas Fernández was born on May 20th 1981 in Madrid. His parents are Jose Luis Casillas and María Del Carmen Fernández González.
As a child he forgot to post his father’s football predictions. The family lost out on around a million pound. Casillas started with Real Madrid at the youth level.
He made his first team debut in 2000. He was the youngest goalkeeper ever to play a champions league final. He pulled of stunning saves to help Real Madrid win the 2002 Champions League.
Since then he has been the regular first team player for real Madrid. Iker Casillas captained Spain to the Euro 2008 due to Raul’s exclusion from the team. He won the tournament. He was part of the Spanish team to list the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
He retained the European Championsip in 2012. in 2013 Iker Casillas suffered a serious injury. After recovering he suffered loss of form and was benched by Jose Mourinho. Spain had an awful 2014 FIFA World Cup.
The defending champions were eliminated in the first round of the tournaments. Iker Casillas was heavily criticized for his performances. But he backed u his fans by winning the 2014 Champions League, Copa Del Rey, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
Iker Casillas is one of the greatest goalkeepers ever to play the game. He has been nominated for FIFA Balln D’or in 2008. He came 4th after Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Fernando Torres. Casillas has won the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Euro and FIFA World Cup as captain. He is one of only three men to achieve the feat.
He is in a relationship with Sara Carbonero. He has a son with her named Martin.
2. Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks OBE, 30 December 1937 – 12 February 2019, was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
He made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional career, and won 73 caps for England, highlighted by starting every game of the nation’s 1966 World Cup victory.
Banks joined Chesterfield in March 1953, and played for their youth team in the 1956 FA Youth Cup final. He made his first team debut in November 1958, and was sold to Leicester City for £7,000 in July 1959.
He played in four cup finals for the club, as they were beaten in the 1961 and 1963 FA Cup finals, before winning the League Cup in 1964 and finishing as finalists in 1965.
Despite this success, and his World Cup win in 1966, he was dropped by Leicester and sold on to Stoke City for £50,000 in April 1967.
In the 1970 World Cup, he made one of the game’s great saves to prevent a Pelé goal, but was absent due to illness as England were beaten by West Germany at the quarter-final stage.
Banks was Stoke City’s goalkeeper in the 1972 League Cup win—the club’s only major honour. He was still Stoke and England’s number one when a car crash in October 1972 cost him both the sight in his right eye, and eventually, his professional career.
He played two last seasons in the United States for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 1977 and 1978, and despite only having vision in one eye, was NASL Goalkeeper of the Year in 1977 after posting the best defensive record in the league. He briefly entered management with Telford United, but left the game in December 1980.
Regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, Banks was named FWA Footballer of the Year in 1972, and was named FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year on six occasions.
The IFFHS named Banks the second-best goalkeeper of the 20th century, after Lev Yashin (1st) and ahead of Dino Zoff (3rd).
1. Lev Yashin
Lev Ivanovich Yashin was a Russian football player often considered to be the best goalkeeper in the history of football. Over the course of his illustrious career, he had appeared in four World Cups.
Yashin was very well known for his positioning, stature, and acrobatic reflex saves. He was born in Moscow, Russia.
At the age of 18, he began working in a military factory and also played for the factory football team. A very good player, he was spotted while playing for the factory team and was invited to join the Dynamo Moscow team.
During his career with the team, he led them to win the USSR football championship five times and the USSR cup three times.
He also played for the Russian national team, helping them win the Summer Olympics in 1956 and the European Championship in 1960. Later, he served as the Deputy Chairman of the Football Federation of the Soviet Union.
In recognition of his contribution to football, he was presented with several awards and honors, such as the Order of Lenin (1967), FIFA Order of Merit (1988) and FIFA goalkeeper of the century (2000).
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Top 5 best football goalkeepers in the world, this is very interesting. What do you think?
