Regardless of the level of play, the goalkeeper plays a key role in every team. Although the entire team works toward the result, ultimately, the goalkeeper is credited with all statistics regarding goals conceded. What is a so-called clean sheet, and who are the best goalkeepers at the moment?
A clean sheet is when a team, specifically the goalkeeper, does not concede a goal in a given match. Browsing through match results, you might get the impression that this happens quite often. However, only the top specialists record more matches without conceding than those where they have to retrieve the ball from their net.
There are many betting options where you can bet that a team will have 0 on the conceded side. Examples include predicting less than 0.5 goals scored by the opponent or selecting NO for the BTTS market, meaning both teams will score. Using any of these options requires careful analysis and familiarity with statistics from at least the last few games.
Detailed statistics are kept for all football competitions, including clean sheets. This makes it easy to check which goalkeepers most frequently avoid conceding goals. It’s worth noting that this statistic does not necessarily reflect save efficiency. Often, goalkeepers with high save efficiency play in somewhat weaker teams, making it difficult for them to frequently record clean sheets.
Recently, Marc-Andre ter Stegen has been in excellent form, recording 26 clean sheets in the 2022-23 league season. He played every match (38), meaning FC Barcelona won or, at worst, drew in 68% of his appearances. More details on La Liga statistics can be found in our post.
Another goalkeeper in surprisingly high form was Lazio's Ivan Provedel, as reflected in the Serie A table. His performances even earned him a call-up to the Italian national team. His 21 matches without conceding a goal are particularly impressive, especially since Provedel previously played for weaker clubs.
The two mentioned above are recently among the goalkeepers who can be very pleased with their performance. However, many more players in the Top 10 leagues deserve recognition. Even goalkeepers from weaker teams in the Top 5 leagues sometimes record many clean sheets.
For leagues ranked closer to the second ten, playing for top clubs is usually necessary. Only this guarantees the chance to work with talented defenders. An example of this is the Greek goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos from Benfica Lisbon. His CV includes impressive football statistics.
Many journalists and football fans debate who the best goalkeeper in the world is. Besides clean sheets, there are other noteworthy statistics, such as save efficiency and passing accuracy. Interestingly, the latter had little importance for goalkeepers until just a few years ago. So, who is the best goalkeeper in the world? It’s hard to say definitively, but here are a few highly regarded specialists in this position: