Revealed: Victor Valdes is the best goalkeeper in La Liga history
In a study by CIHEFE, Victor Valdes has been revealed as the best goalkeeper in La Liga's history.
He tops the list ahead of Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid, was on loan from Chelsea), Francisco Liano (Racing, Deportivo and Sporting), Roberto Rodriguez "Rodri" (Atletico Madrid and Celta Vigo) and Mariano Garcia Remon (Real Madrid).
In this list Iker Casillas is ranked 20th, while other goalkeepers with international experience are also among the best, e.g. Santiago Canizares (8), Luis Maria Arconada (13), Andoni Zubizarreta (17), Abel Resino (22), Miguel Ángel González (24) and Jose Angel Iríbar (33).
The report by CIHEFE was prepared by Vinaras Vidal de Blas, and he analyses 790 the goalkeepers that have played in the first division since the start of the league championship in 1928, accounting for 9.10% of the total 8,679 players who have played in the top flight.
Goals against, the number of titles won, consecutive weeks without conceding and the number of Zamora trophies obtained all played a part in the creating a coefficient.
Vales is top, conceding 0.832 goals a game on average, collecting 20 titles, going 7 games without conceding a goal, winning five Zamora trophies and playing a total of 387 games.
Of the 790 goalkeepers, 127 were born outside of Spain. 33 were from Argentina, with 9 from Uruguay. This is in a league that has taken place 84 times, with goalkeepers of 36 different nationalities.
Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras and the United States have all provided a goalkeeper, with Costa Rica (Luis Conejo and Keylor Navas) and Chile (Oscar Wirth and Claudio Bravo) adding two each.
As for those born in Spain, Basques rule the roost with 68 keepers from Vizcaya and 58 from Guipuzcoa, ahead of 52 from Barcelona and 50 from Madrid.
The youngest was Jose Francisco Rivero, who played for Athletic Bilbao and Lleida between 1942 and 1951, debuting at 17 years 7 months and 3 days. The oldest is Florentino Zion, Oviedo (1941-44), at 36 years 2 months and 4 days.
Along with Valdes, Antonio Ramallets has five Zamora awards, with Canizares and Juan Acuna on four each.
The study concluded that Valdes was almost the ideal prototype - if only he was Basque and made his Primera Division debute at 16.
