Best Players in the History of Real Madrid – Part 1, Goalkeepers

The award for La Liga’s best goalkeeper was named after Ricardo Zamora

According to the reports of Spanish gambling news, Real Madrid has had many great goalkeepers throughout the club’s 113 year old history. The first memorable of them all is probably the former Barcelona star, Ricardo Zamora. Nowadays his name represents the award given to the goalkeeper who conceded the least goal in the Liga BBVA throughout the season.

• Best goalkeeper’s trophy was named after Zamora
• Real Madrid dominated Spain during Buyo’s era
• Casillas is one of the world’s most successful goalies

Ricardo Zamora was one of the greatest stars of FC Barcelona between 1919 and 1922, but he left the Blaugrana for Barcelona’s other team, Espanyol, where he played for 8 years. He Joined Real Madrid in 1930 and was the goalkeeper of Galacticos until 1936. During his time at Los Blancos, he won both the Spanish championship and the Copa del Rey twice. His second Spanish Cup final at Real Madrid was against his former team, FC Barcelona, where the capital side won 2-1 and Zamora saved a clear cut chance in the last minute of the game.

Francisco Buyo was legendary goalkeeper during the ‘Quinta del Buitre’ era

Real Madrid signed Francisco “Paco” Buyo from Sevilla in 1986. This way, the goalkeeper became member of the “Quinta del Buitre”, the historic era of the Royal Club which was made up of homegrown world-class players such as Emilio Butragueno, Manuel Sanchís or Miguel Pardeza. In addition, they had players like Chendo, Hugo Sánchez and Buyo in the squad, which explains how they were so easily capable of dominating both Spain and Europe.

Paco Buyo has played for the capital side for 11 seasons and made appearances of 454 official matches, according to the reports of various mobile betting sites. During his time at Los Blancos, the Galician goalie has won the Spanish Supercup 4 times, while his vitrine also contains 2 golden medals from the Copa del Rey in addition to the six medallions which were awarded for claiming the first place in the La Liga.

Buyo was replaced by Bodo Illgner and Santiago Canizares

The Whites have brought up their homegrown player, Santiago Canizares from the reserve team to the first squad. The youngster was loaned out for Elche, Mérida and Celta Vigo. After being key member of the latter club, Real Madrid called him back and he played in the capital for 4 years, making 41 league appearances.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid also acquired Bodo Illgner from 1. Fc Köln in 1996. The German goalkeeper managed to become regular starting player by the end of the season as in the beginning Canizares was favored. However, Illgner was in the goal at the 1998 Champions League final which they won 1-0 against Juventus. Illgner played for Real Madrid until 2001 and has made 91 league appearances. He was chosen as member of the “Best Foreign Elveven” by Marca.

Iker Casillas is ready to break most records at Real Madrid

Iker Casillas is probably the greatest goalkeeper legend at Real Madrid. He has been raised at his club throughout his entire life and has debuted in the Champions League against Rosenborg when he was only 16 years old. He lost his place twice in the squad – once in the season 2001-2002, where he only played after Cesar Sanchez’s injury and saved his team on many occasions at the Champions League final against Leverkusen. He lost his place in the first team again at José Mourinho in 2013 but he managed to retain his position since then.

The legendary goalkeeper has been with Real Madrid for 16 seasons and has played in 507 league games for the Galacticos. Online gambling sites in Spain report that he has won the most games in the history of Real Madrid. He is full of individual and collective records, as he won the Zamora trophy in 2008 and he received the Wolrd Cup Golden Glove in 2010 among many others. In addition, he has won the Champions League 3 times and the La Liga 5 times, just to mention a few.