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Kepa, the keeper.
Let's talk about keepers - for once!

Let's talk about keepers - for once!

The record fee for a goalkeeper has been broken twice this window, with clubs investing in a position whose importance is too often overlooked

Rob Palmer

Friday, 10 August 2018, 18:10

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Forget Messi and Ronaldo... there's a new debate to split all football fans. Who is the best goalkeeper in the world?

Once upon a time the value of the shot-stopper was almost discarded and the goalkeeper wasn't said to reach his peak until his thirties.

Over the past two summers the value of the goalkeeper has soared and the guys with the gloves of the very best clubs are getting younger and younger.

The youngest of the goalkeeping elite, Kepa Arrizabalaga, is now the costliest. Only 23 years of age, he signed a seven-year contract at Chelsea who invested a record 79-million-euros to replace Thibaut Courtois who headed to Real Madrid for half of that price.

It is difficult to improve upon a team that has won the Champions League three times in a row but the club number one is a position that Real could marginally improve upon. It's folklore that David De Gea would have moved from Manchester United if the Bernabéu fax machine had functioned fully. Real continued to woo him and also courted Kepa.

Kepa decided to sign a new deal in the winter at Athletic with an increased buy-out which has been met by Chelsea this week.

There was very little wrong with Real's incumbent. Keylor Navas can point to his vast medal collection as proof. His acrobatic training regime is the envy of performers at the Cirque du Soleil. The Costa Rican is international class, the incoming Belgian is world class.

Courtois will improve the European Champions by a discernible percentage. He has presence and an impressive authority. He's served his time across town at Atlético, honed his game at Stamford Bridge and is at the peak of his powers at the age of just 26.

The world record holder Kepa is three years younger and has a tough act to follow but, remember, there was a loud call in Spain for him to be selected ahead of De Gea at this summer's World Cup.

As someone who did once earn a living, albeit a short one, as a professional goalkeeper, my reckoning that we won't be able to judge him until he's made a dreadful mistake. All goalkeepers make them (me more than others, that's why I now commentate) and the test is how you bounce back and how high. Kepa won't improve Chelsea... but also he won't weaken them.

The record for a goalkeeper lasted 16 years until Alisson's transfer to Liverpool eclipsed Gianluigi Buffon's 52-million move in 2001. Alisson Becker's move, at 75 million euros, topped the previous Premier League record (Ederson to Manchester City for 40 million euros the previous summer). Both have, and will, improve mightily impressive teams.

Unless you want to start a Twitter storm, don't ask who the best goalkeeper in the world may be. I could argue that the most unobtainable are now at Barcelona and Atlético Madrid.

Marc-André ter Stegen was a bargain at 26 million euros and last season he was sensational for the La Liga champions. Jan Oblak was on the wanted list of many of Europe's leading clubs. Atlético have somehow managed to keep him and also of course Antoine Griezmann this summer.

Once it was said you have to be crazy to be a goalkeeper, or the worst footballer at the school. Now it is rightly regarded as an art form and as with all art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder so don't ask me who is the best! In the Goalkeepers' Union we don't go in for such talk.

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