If David De Gea’s performance against Arsenal at the weekend didn’t convince you he was at least in the top five goalkeepers in the world, then we’re not sure what will.
The Spaniard recorded a staggering 14 saves against Arsène Wenger’s side, and was key in helping Manchester United secure a 3-1 win at the Emirates on Saturday evening.
There are several great goalkeepers in the Premier League right now, including Thibaut Courtois at Chelsea, and Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris, but not many would argue with De Gea being right up there on the world stage.
Ahead of the Ballon d’Or ceremony, France Football asked five former goalkeepers to rank their top five, well, goalkeepers, but there was very little love for the Spain number one. The French magazine used a similar points system to the official award, giving the top goalkeeper six points, with second receiving four, third three, fourth two and fifth one.
Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer came top, raking in the maximum 30 points, followed by Gianluigi Buffon with 13 points. Next on the list was Courtois with nine, while fourth and fifth place were shared by Jan Oblak and Lloris, both getting seven points.
With the former goalkeeper speaking to a French magazine, perhaps that helped them rank Lloris highly, although his Tottenham displays over the past year obviously justify a good placing.
If you’re surprised at De Gea’s absence so far, you’ll be even more shocked by who came sixth, as Real Madrid’s Keylor Navas, the man Florentino Perez is desperate to replace with the Manchester United shot stopper, preceded the Spaniard.
That means that, according to Santiago Cañizares, Francesco Toldo, Mark Schwarzer, Sepp Maier and Lionel Letizi, the Red Devils star is the seventh best goalkeeper in the world, just ahead of Samir Handanovic and Marc-André ter Stegen.
Only Cañizares (placing him fifth in his list) and Francesco Toldo (who put him 3rd) included De Gea in their list, while the other three omitted him entirely.
Make of that what you will, but the former Valencia shot stopper actually put Keylor Navas number two on his list.
He’s good, but you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone else who thinks that. Not even most Real Madrid fans.
