Where Manuel Neuer Ranks Among Champions League-Era Goalkeepers
Manuel Neuer received the nod as one of the final three contenders for the 2014 Ballon d'Or on Monday, per FIFA.com, with the goalkeeper hoping to become the first stopper since Lev Yashin in 1963 to win the award.
Up against Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who have won it between themselves since 2008, he faces a tough test—but there's little doubt he is the outstanding talent in his position in world football at this point.
The changing face and style of football makes it tough to pinpoint where Neuer would rank against the likes of Yashin, Dino Zoff or Gordon Banks, but how does he stack up in the Champions League era of the game?
Mentions and Criteria
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Mentions
Petr Cech and Angelo Peruzzi are our two goalkeepers who didn't quite make the cut to the top group. Both were (or are, assuming Cech regains a first-team spot somewhere) outstanding talents near the top of the pile in the world in their prime and fully deserve noting.
Criteria
Several factors have gone into the decision for placing the six goalkeepers left at the top. Of course, talent and ability comes into it, but the variance in players' careers is at times beyond their control due to age, team-mates, injuries or changes in the game, so their abilities at their absolute peaks are taken primarily into account.
We will also consider longevity, both at their peak level and at their main club with varying form, if necessary, and the major honours won in the game.
Club football, not international, is the decisive factor, since we are talking Champions League-era players only.
6. Edwin van der Sar
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Former Netherlands goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar starred for Ajax, Juventus, Manchester United and, err, Fulham during his playing days.
Known as an agile keeper with great reflexes, good distribution and the ability to organise defences, he represented an early change from the bulky, top-heavy goalkeepers of previous generations to the more lithe athletes commonly found today.
He won two Champions League medals, a whole host of league titles in England and the Netherlands and is comfortably the most capped player in Dutch national team history, with 130 to his name. He retired in 2011 after losing in another Champions League final against Barcelona.
5. Oliver Kahn
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German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn was an impassable presence for Bayern Munich for more than a decade, having started off his career with Karlsruher in the late '80s.
A massive, imposing presence, he was second to perhaps just one other goalkeeper in terrifying forwards so much on one-on-one situations that they almost expected to have such shots saved by Kahn. His distribution was also notably excellent, and his consistency saw him remain a key figure up to his retirement in 2008.
Kahn won one Champions League title and eight league titles with Bayern, while also winning 86 caps for Germany.
4. Peter Schmeichel
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Peter Schmeichel was a Danish goalkeeper who featured most prominently for Manchester United, but he also represented Sporting CP, Manchester City and Aston Villa, as well as Hvidovre in his home nation before retiring in 2003.
If we're talking of the one whom forwards feared more on one-on-ones than Kahn, Schmeichel was it. His enormous presence and ability to quickly get off his goal line and stop threatening attacks made him the best at his position at one point, along with his magnificent handling skills and quick, long throws out.
Schmeichel won a single Champions League title, like Kahn, and he also picked up five league wins in England and one in Portugal. He made 129 appearances for Denmark, a national record, scoring once.
3. Manuel Neuer
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To the current man of the moment, the world's best all-round goalkeeper, Neuer. Aside from winning the World Cup with Germany this year, he has of course been long lauded for his performances with Bayern Munich over the past three-and-a-half seasons, representing Schalke before that.
He is the archetypal sweeper keeper, the last line of defence who actually plays part of each game in the defensive line rather than inside his own penalty area. Reading the game and concentration skills apart, his footwork is excellent, and his handling is unsurpassed by any.
Neuer, 28, has won two league titles and one Champions League medal, but he must be hopeful of adding to both tallies, quite possibly this season. He has close to 60 caps for the national team and is the undisputed first choice there.
2. Iker Casillas
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No beating around the bush: The current iteration of Iker Casillas is a million miles away from when he was at his peak—but during that extended period, there were not many around who were as good or as consistent.
Casillas made his Real Madrid debut as a teenager in 1999 and has been first choice with very little interruption ever since—once usurped as a youngster by Cesar and then most recently by Diego Alves last year.
Tremendously fast reflexes and great agility made Casillas a perfect last line behind a traditionally porous Real Madrid defence, but his commanding presence, all-round ability on the ball and quick distribution, not to mention commanding the respect and influence over the squad, made him a general on the pitch.
With three Champions League wins to his name and five league titles, he is a born winner, and that has continued even into the modern day as his own skills and top-level ability have departed—as last year's Champions League victory showed. For a decade, he was right at the top of the game, in the top two or three goalkeepers at any one point.
Casillas has 160 caps, a record for Spain and 10th in the world all-time list, and he's still going.
1. Gianluigi Buffon
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We're awarding top spot to Gianluigi Buffon of Juventus and Italy, previously of Parma and now, aged 36, still a big performer who has just earned a new deal with his team to take him to 39 years of age.
Buffon has it all: experience and reading of a game but also great handling, confidence to come off his line and lightning reactions. His distribution is good, but the respect he commands, both with his defence and opposing forwards, is more important. What he doesn't prevent by his ordering and ability to see developing, he inevitably stops with his ability to pull off the spectacular and the routine in equal measure and capacity.
Buffon has won seven Serie A titles, but although he won the UEFA Cup with Parma, the Champions League remains missing from his list of achievements. With 146 caps, he's not far off Casillas, but he's top of Italy's record books and 17th all time in the world.
