SUMMARY
- Keylor Navas believes that goalkeepers should get a separate Ballon d'Or award.
- However, now it seems like Keylor Navas was right about it.
Keylor Navas is arguably among the best shot-stoppers of his generation. The 37-year-old is known for his incredible reflexes and positional awareness. The goalkeeper has played for some of the biggest clubs in the world, like Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, winning numerous titles. Making his journey out of the Central American country, Keylor Navas is perhaps Costa Rica’s best contribution to soccer.
THIS save from Keylor Navas 👏👏👏#UCL pic.twitter.com/6iZAQ6zOZq
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) May 1, 2018
However, even after his stellar performances on big occasions, Keylor has been deprived of a Ballon d’Or win. The Costa Rican believes that many goalkeepers like him are disadvantaged by the award and called out for some changes to it.
Keylor Navas believes that the Ballon d’Or is unfair towards goalkeepers
The 37-year-old goalkeeper believes that the illustrious award is losing its credibility. He alleged that France Football, the presenters of the Ballon d’Or, have refused to recognize actual greatness. According to Keylor Navas, the award is getting heavily obsessed with stats and goals, which has placed especially goalkeepers at a disadvantage. He also believes that it is practically impossible for a goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or in today’s age.
🎙️ Keylor Navas: “I think goalkeepers need a separate Ballon d’Or from the rest of the players.
At this rate, goalkeepers stand no chance of winning the Ballon d’Or, because people only care about the number of goals and assists and they never ever care about the saves.” 🧤🇨🇷 pic.twitter.com/DhDvvhrOdl
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) March 7, 2024
Keylor has demanded a separate Ballon d’Or award for the goalkeepers. He said, “I think goalkeepers need a separate Ballon d’Or from the rest of the players.” The 37-year-old also alleged that people nowadays only care about goals and assists and overlook other outfield players. The PSG goalkeeper believes that people do not really care about the efforts of the goalkeepers and do not acknowledge their saves.
Keylor’s comments come at a time when the credibility of the Ballon d’Or award is being heavily questioned. Although France Football gives out a separate trophy named ‘Yachine Trophy’ to the goalkeeper, it seems that the goalkeeper is not happy with the publicity that the trophy brings with it.
The award for the best goalkeeper is named after the legendary goalkeeper from the erstwhile USSR, Lev Yashin. Lev is the only goalkeeper in the history of the sport to win a Ballon d’Or.
Gianluigi Buffon and Manuel Neuer have come very close to winning the award
However, the ‘Black Spider’ Lev Yashin won the award way back in 1963. It’s been more than half a century since a goalkeeper laid his hands on a Ballon d’Or trophy. The chronology seems to justify Keylor Navas’ comments about the award. However, all is not lost for goalkeepers, as many legendary ones have come agonizingly close to winning a Ballon d’Or award.
Oliver Kahn, the FC Bayern Munich icon, finished twice on the Ballon d’Or podium. The German goalkeeper earned back-to-back third-place finishes in 2001 and 2002. The 54-year-old lost the awards to Michael Owen and Ronaldo Nazario, respectively.
In 2006, #Buffon won the FIFA World Cup 🏆, World Cup Yashin Award, was voted to the All-star team of the tournament, named to the FIFPro World XI & Uefa team of the year, IIHF World’s best goalkeeper, & was 2nd for the Ballon d’Or…yet still went down to Serie B. Imagine that.. pic.twitter.com/0P9bDN0KZn
— Donato Daniel Grossi (@Donatog87) May 11, 2021
Gianluigi Buffon, too, was in contention to win the coveted award. He came in 2nd in the 2006 Ballon d’Or rankings, which is the highest for a goalkeeper since Lev Yashin won the trophy in 1963. The Juventus goalkeeper was in prime form, winning the Serie A and the FIFA World Cup during that time. Interestingly, Buffon lost the trophy to his fellow countryman and the Italian captain, Fabio Cannavaro.
Manuel Neuer is the latest goalkeeper to finish on the podium of the Ballon d’Or. The German goalkeeper finished third in the 2014 Ballon d’Or ranking behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Neuer was off the back of a stellar World Cup in Brazil, where Germany had clinched the trophy.
Manuel, too, was phenomenal throughout the tournament, where he won the Golden Glove award for being the best goalkeeper of the tournament. However, the German finished just short of clinching his maiden Ballon d’Or trophy and thus creating history.
