One of the finest shot-stoppers in world football, if not the best
A 16-year-old Iker Casillas was busy eating his school dinner when the headmaster called him over to tell him that he had to join up with the Real Madrid squad for a Champions League game in Norway. The young goalkeeper didn’t believe him, but it was true.
Although he didn’t play, and much as he would have to wait until September 1999 to make his league debut against Athletic Bilbao at the age of 18, it was the first step to becoming arguably the world’s finest goalkeeper. Having joined Real Madrid at the age of nine, he had already won an U16 European Championship and would soon add the U20 World Cup.
Four leagues and a Champions League followed, with a Casillas making a heroic 23-minute appearance as sub in the final at Hampden Park. His down-to-earth attitude – one advertising campaign showed him declaring, “I’m not a galactico, I'm from Móstoles" (the working class Madrid satellite town) – and good looks have made him even more of an icon.
Casillas is not especially tall at 1.85m (a shade under 6ft 1in) but he makes up for that with extraordinarily fast reflexes and superb agility. He is, quite simply, capable of making saves that others cannot make, earning himself the nickname of Saint Iker, performing miracle after miracle.
For years he has sustained Real Madrid’s challenges for silverware; in the 2006-07 he was the most shot-at keeper in La Liga but still finished the season as the one who had conceded the fewest goals. He has also worked to iron out his weaknesses in the air and has developed a quiet authority and leadership that saw him captain Spain to their first international success in 44 years.