With Messi winning the World Cup, and the sad passing of Pele only a few days after that the GOAT debate was rekindled. A debate that isn’t as talked about is the GOAT debate amongst goalkeepers. If you’re an avid reader of this site, first of all thank you, and second you probably know who the winner is going to be. Still, I want to talk about a couple of old time goalkeepers and their claims to being the greatest of all time.
Going back to the debate about the best player ever, one of the underlying sentiments to the death of Pele was that he walked so that others could run. There are certainly goalkeepers that can fit that mold that Pele fits for outfield players. Is being the first to ever do it make you eligible to be the answer to the question of who is the best goalkeeper ever?
I want to say no right off the bat. Really though there are plenty of things to take into account. For one, goalkeepers from previous eras wore rudimentary equipment and had to deal with a much heavier and harder ball. On top of that teams started playing defense around the mid 70s! Before that it was really a free for all. If we go through the history of tactical formations in football we’ll find a front 5 offense going up against 3 defenders. That’s wild to think about in this day and age. With all of this in mind let’s get it started with the first guy on the list!
Gordon Banks – Is He Really An All-Time Great?
British people always want to put Gordon Banks on these lists. To be completely honest I didn’t want to do it for a couple of reasons. Number one the only thing that I’ve actually seen from him is that famous save to a Pele header in the 1970 World Cup. He played for a long time and without a doubt he’s one of those goalkeepers that was part of the transition from the old game to the modern era. He played through the 60s and almost to the end of the 70s. I know, he’s thought of very fondly in England because he won the World Cup with the team, but if we’re being honest he always played for lower level teams in the English first division at the time. Remember that these were the years way before the Premier League.
As far as his play he was very much a between the sticks goalkeeper like many of his era. There’s an argument to be made that the English school of goalkeeping is modeled after his game. He wasn’t the tallest man by today’s standards but during his day he was probably one of the tallest goalkeepers in the English game. He usually stayed between the sticks and was happy to fly from post to post. That’s another thing that I have against Banks; he didn’t necessarily revolutionize the position. Like some of the other goalkeepers that I’m going to be talking about here shortly. At that time virtually everyone was a between the sticks goalkeeper. He did win the World Cup, and he did make that amazing save to the Pele header. They lost that game though so, it really didn’t amount to much.
Dino Zoff – The First Italian Eternal Goalkeeper
I’m going to try and take a trip to Italy soon to try and find out how in the World they keep producing goalkeepers that are capable of playing at such a high level at a very old age. Dino Zoff was perhaps the first example of this, and then another perhaps well known goalkeeper almost mimicked his career, but we’ll get to him in a bit. Dino Zoff’s career started in 1961 and ended in 1983. He was also one of those goalkeepers that was able to play in completely different eras. By 1982-1983 the last season that he was a professional still playing for Juventus he had been part of the old school Catenaccio years that took place throughout the 60s. At that time he was playing in a rough Serie A that was still heavily influenced by defensive minds, but with a touch of total football brilliance.
One of the things that impressed me from Zoff in doing the research for this article was his hand placement. Particularly in his younger career. You have to remember that these guys were playing in less than stellar fields. So keeping yourself alive in the play was vital. That meant having twitchy hands to be able to adjust your position even if you had already dove to a ball. Since they were playing in muddy fields most of the time a low running shot could change direction at any point. Zoff was ready though to switch his hand placement to be able to at least take a stab at the ball. We see that today in guys like Ter Stegen and Keylor Navas. At times these twitchy hand movements are considered unconventional or even not proper technique by some.
Peter Schmeichel – Yes The Great Dane Deserves A Spot
This may be one of the more controversial inclusions to the list. In my eyes at least he’s got more success at the club level than Banks and the Euro Cup victory puts him almost on par on the international stage with the Brit. Trophies are not the reason though why this man is on the list. He’s on the list because he’s essentially the first goalkeeper to be that big and be a total athlete. The direct comparison that I could make would obviously be his son Kasper. Dad though was just a much better goalkeeper, and that’s not a knock on Kasper, it’s just that his dad’s an all-time great. I would actually argue that the real comparison for Peter Schmeichel to a modern goalkeeper is Manuel Neuer.
A very tall and wide goalkeeper that’s literally too athletic for his size. That allows him to be not just your typical between the sticks goalkeeper. Even though he was by no means the sweeper keeper that Neuer is, he was quick enough to get close to the shooter before they were able to get a shot on goal. That’s why you see a lot of 1v1 saves from him. He had incredible timing to leave his line and get up on the shooter to make the save. I was torn between Schmeichel and Kahn here. In fact I could’ve even thrown Neuer into this mix. As I argued in the beginning though Schmeichel did it first. So that has to count for something.
Lev Yashin – We Can’t Forget The Black Spider
There’s an argument to be made that Lev Yashin is what Pele is to Messi. In the sense that he’s the one who walked so that everyone else could run. Unlike Pele though since Yashin was a Soviet goalkeeper we don’t necessarily have a lot of information about him in the west. Of course, there are videos of him and that’s why one could make the assessment that he was one of the best goalkeepers to ever live. At the same time though I would love to know why he only played 6 games in 1958 which was seemingly the middle of his prime. He played the same amount of games for his lifetime club Dynamo Moscow than he did for the Soviet Union in that year.
From the videos though what I can clearly see was that he was a goalkeeper that was more willing to come out and cut crosses and essentially impact the game closing in on shooters to force 1v1 situations where he would have the advantage. That’s not something that was even remotely normal for the time. If you compare him to Gordon Banks who was more or less his contemporary it’s clear Yashin was the more complete keeper of the two. The obscurity of his career though is the reason why I don’t like anointing him as the best goalkeeper ever. He’s more of a myth than a reality. Of course, there’s that Ballon D Or that he won, and he’s the only keeper to ever win the award. There’s just not enough tangible evidence for me.
Gianluigi Buffon – I’m Making This Argument Again
As I mentioned way ahead of time people who are readers of this site will know who my pick for the greatest of all time is. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that the two Italians are perhaps the two best goalkeepers of all time. That second Italian being Dino Zoff who I covered, and of course the best goalkeeper of all time Gianluigi Buffon. In making this argument I even questioned myself if I was having some recency bias. Perhaps my own idealization of Buffon as a goalkeeper that I grew up watching influences my take here. However, it’s hard to argue that a World Cup champion who played in the 90’s and early 2000s Serie A only to come back and be nominated for a Ballon D Or in his late 30s is a bad pick.
That’s essentially my argument in favor of Buffon. Just like Zoff before him, he found a way to be the best goalkeeper in completely different eras of the game. Even if guys like Neuer, Khan, Casillas or anyone you want to throw at him beat Buffon out one year his consistency is unmatched. Again perhaps Zoff is the closest to him. In fact, Buffon has a lot of that twitchy hand movement that Zoff had. Obviously it’s not a coincidence. When he broke into Serie A the fields were still awful and goalkeepers had to contend with tricky bounces. That means that you can’t commit to a ball beforehand. Although he’s not the best at cutting crosses or with his feet he was always competent. Also, he was always reliable in big games.
Who Is The Best Goalkeeper Ever – Conclusion
The debate over who is the best goalkeeper ever is one that’s ongoing. There’s an argument to be made that this is good for the position. With Messi winning the World Cup even those people who had not been on his side for years sort of had to concede. When it comes to goalkeeping though we can’t really put team success as a main category. Even though I took points from Gordon Banks for the lack of it! However, there are guys like Victor Valdes who was middle of the pack at best in his prime, but he was part of the best Barcelona of all time. Even in this last World Cup we could argue Hugo Lloris is overall a better goalkeeper than Dibu Martinez, but Argentina won and Dibu was key to the win.
Without a doubt the “uniqueness” of goalkeeping makes this a tough debate to have. Ultimately that’s why my picks are guys who did it at a high level for a long time. Quite frankly a lot of keepers have had 4 great years even. That doesn’t or shouldn’t necessarily put them in the same class as, the man, the myth, the legend Gigi Buffon. Sorry to the German goalkeepers, none of them made the list, and perhaps collectively they are the best of the bunch. Again though that’s how tough this debate can truly get!
