manisoccer’s posterous

Today over lunch I had a discussion with my friends regarding the best goal keeper of all time and currently. Since the transfer rumors seem to be a bit quiet for now after the big bang and since I am not that interested in seeing South Africa vs Iraq playing (no offense), this was a good topic for our lunch. (especially since the food was not great)

As a Bayern fan and neutral observer, the all time question is easily solved: It can only be Oliver Kahn. Now there might be people who will argue that it was Sepp Maier, Lev Yashin or Dino Zoff. Out of those I only saw Dino Zoff play and since I was too young to remember, I can only vote for Kahn. 

Oliver Kahn was the leading figure at Bayern in the last ten years. He was constantly playing on the highest level, made almost no mistakes and saved the impossible balls. Because of his grim look, strikers were afraid to come close to him and maybe rightly so. It was because of Kahn that Germany made it with a really bad team into the World Cup final of 2002 and it was because of him that Bayern won the Champions League in 2001. Kahn had only two mediocre years and that was in 2005 and 2006 when he started to date a 18 year old. That is never good for your performance.  If Kahn would have been a striker and not a goalkeeper hw would easily have broken Cristiano Ronaldo's record for being the most expensive player.

My friends obviously disagreed, but only because a.) they like to disagree with me on all football related topics b.) nobody besides Bayern fans likes Kahn and c.) they have no idea about football.

The question regarding the current best goalkeeper is a more tricky one. Two years ago I would have said Gianluigi Buffon from Juventus Turin. He had an amazing World Cup and was also the best Italian player during the Euro 2008. I think he is still good but he is outshined by two other goalkeepers. Interestingly enough they both play for teams that I can't stand, but still one needs to acknowledge their performances.

The first is Edwin van der Saar. Van der Saar has always been a good goalkeeper, but in his last years he became an excellent one. He makes almost no mistakes and sometimes even manages to save balls that are impossible to save. He is getting better the older he gets and I am really impressed with him and his performance although he is a Manchester United player.

The second is Iker Casillas. Not only is Casillas playing for Real Madrid, a team that I cannot stand since I am a Barcelona fan. Casillas is also Spanish, a country that has not a great goalkeeper history. Remember Andoni Zubizarreta ? He was one of the reasons Spain could never win anything. Now Casillas made a lot of easy mistakes when he was younger, but he is getting better and better. He is extremely fast and is saving some goals that I believe are for sure in.

Although he received 6 against arch rival Barcelona, he is for me currently the best keeper.