Today we count down our top five premier league goalkeepers of all time.
5. Lets get the ball rolling. This man has had more hair styles than hot dinners, Played over 500 games in the top flight of English football, has kept goal for teams such as Liverpool, Villa, City, The Hammers & more recently Pompey. He has had some fantastic match winning moments through out his career and the odd heart in mouth moments too. The odd miss-kick here and there, and the odd flapping @ crosses in his early days, couldn't stop him becoming a cult hero for the teams he played for. This man has kept more clean sheets in the top flight than any other keeper. Made the hard look easy and the easy hard. Under Harry he managed to gain the consistency needed to be a top drawer keeper. Capped by his Country over 50 times.
@ number 5 is David James
4. This young man first caught the eye of the watching world back in 2001 - 2002 when he kept goal for his former team Sparta Prague. Sparta went over 928 minutes unbeaten in all competitions with him between the sticks. After a short stint with Rennes, he caught the eye of then Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri. After a quick chat between the pair aboard a massive boat, It was agreed that Chelsea would need to part with £7 million to get their man. He currently holds the record for being the quickest keeper to reach 100 clean sheets, it took him only 180 games to do so.
@ number 4 is Petr Cech.
3.USA! USA! USA! Are the chants that ring round Villa Park. Things didn't go to plan when this keeper first arrived on our shores. In 97 Liverpool paid £1.7 to sign the big man, work permit issues delayed his debut until Feb 98. Things went from bad to worse after that, he was unable to hold down a starting place, and in 3 years with the club managed just over 30 odd games. In 2000 and on a free he moved to Blackburn to act as cover for their number one. In a short space of time he made the number one jersey his own. A man of the match performance against Spurs in the Carling Cup final of 2002, made him a life long hero to the fans of Blackburn. Gordon Strachan once liken him to Superman. In 2004 he scored his first and only goal of his career. Played over 300 games for Blackburn before he moved to Villa in 2008. Since then he has played for the Villains over 100 times, leading them back up the table and into europe.
@ number 3 is Brad Friedel.
2. A cult hero for his former club Newcastle United, (who would have thought this back in 1996? while playing for Blackburn Rovers the young keeper was loaned out to Sunderland.) Kenny Dalglish was the Blackburn manger during this time, and took a keen interest in the development of this young Irish keeper. In 97 King Kenny left Blackburn @ took over the Hot seat @ Newcastle, one of the first things he did was sign his former keeper for a fee of £1.5 million. He went on to make over 450 appearances for the Toon Army during a 12 year stint with the club. On Feb 1st 2009 He left Newcastle for the riches of Manchester. City paid just under £6 million for the players services.
@ number 2 in our list is Shay Given.
That brings us to our number 1 in the list, We have been blessed with some great goalkeepers playing their trade over here. The likes of Seaman, Van der Sar, Jaaskelainen & Barthez to name a few, but they couldn't even make it in the top five!
In @ number 1 & our all time favorite premier league goalkeeper is the man who liked to wear XXXL goalkeeping shirts, and liked to score the odd goal here and there. Its of course Peter Schmeichel. Known for standing tall, Schmeichel won medal after medal @ Old Trafford during a nine year stint. He made goal keeping look easy..... mind you he could have done with one of them snoods, he always had a red nose!
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