The legendary Goalkeeper Iker Casillas is undoubtedly one of the bests to have guarded the Real Madrid goal and to have captained the side. He turns 40 today and the least we, at The Real Champs could do, was reminisce his great playing days on his birthday. On that note, here are the top 5 Iker Casillas moments in the Royal White kit.
5. First team debut at San Mames
It all started at San Mames. On September 12, 1999, Iker Casillas for the first time, at the age of 18 put on the gloves as he guarded the goal for Real Madrid’s first team. It was the third Matchday of the league.
Though he was beaten twice in the game that ended in a 2-2 draw, he wasn’t at fault for the goals. The first was a brilliant freekick right into the corner by Julen Guerrero, the second an own goal by Nijtap Geremi. Casillas did a good job on his first time out for the first team.
It started the passage of innumerable times, San Iker would be standing in front of the White’s goal as a watchful warrior. The first-team debut is always special for a player and it was the same for Casillas. This is what he said years later about the match being his greatest memory:
"“That’s the greatest football memory I have. I went from playing in the second division B playoffs with Real Madrid C to being at San Mames. You can imagine how different it was from three journalists covering the match, there were now 50. From playing in front of a crowd of 500 to playing in front of 50,000. It was a brutal change.”"
Nonetheless, a change that he adapted to in the finest of styles.
4. Youngest Goalkeeper to play in a Champions League final
Iker Casillas has overturned records and made new ones throughout his Real Madrid career. A lesser-known one however was made on May 24, 2000, when he became the youngest goalkeeper to play in a Champions League final and it stands to date.
Real Madrid faced Valencia in the Champions League final of the 1999-2000 season. A string of bad performances by Casillas made Cesar Sanchez the first-choice keeper and him, the backup. Cesar, however, was injured on the final, and Casillas had to guard the Whites’ goal.
The outcome of the game was a comfortable 3-0 win for Los Blancos in the end. Casillas did put in the shift that was required to win the final of Europe’s biggest club competition as he kept a clean sheet, one of the many he did throughout his career making him the keeper with the most number of clean sheets in the Champions League history.
It also was the day when Casillas won his first of the three Champions League titles with Real Madrid at the age of 19. It remains one of the highlights of his illustrious Real Madrid career, the first European title is always special. With the win, he thus became the youngest goalkeeper to play in a Champions League final and also win it.
3. Last-minute save to ensure La Novena
The Champions League campaign of 2001-02 was another monumental one for Iker Casillas. He won the second Champions League with Real Madrid and was called on the pitch for an injured Cesar Sanchez in the 68th minute of the match. Today, we know the match as the one that established a 20-year old Casillas as Real’s first-choice keeper.
The match is remembered for a thunderous volley that Zinedine Zidane scored off a Roberto Carlos cross that in the end was the difference between the two finalist clubs, Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen.
But, another monumental feat pulled off to ensure La Novena were the three brilliant saves the substitute, Casillas pulled off in the dying embers of the game, 7th minute of the injury time to be specific. Two of them came from Carsten Ramelow. The three back-to-back saves ensured that Los Blancos could wrap the match up within the regulation time which otherwise would have been forced to extra-time.
The scoreline read 2-1 to Real Madrid with goals from Raul and Zinedine Zidane. Lucio scored on the other end against Cesar. But it was Casillas who simply refused to be beaten and ensured both a European title and a first-choice keeping spot.
2. ‘That save’ against Sevilla in LaLiga 2009-10 season
When any Madridista is asked about the best save they had ever seen, the answer always is ‘that save’ Iker Casillas pulled off against Sevilla on October 4, 2009. It is so well documented in the history of Spanish Football that it deserved to get a spot so high up in the list.
Though the game ended in a 2-1 defeat for Los Blancos, San Iker pulled off something to be talked about for years to come. The score was 1-0 to Sevilla, Alvaro Negredo drilled in a low cross from the right. It found the Argentine, Diego Perotti on the far post, positioned perfectly to score into an open net.
To his, as well the spectators’, surprise the Spanish Captain, who was defending a Ricardo Zamora trophy for the best goalkeeper in the league, made an impossible amount of positional shift right on the line, ridiculously fast to deny Perotti’s shot right at the opening minutes of the second half. Perhaps no other goalkeeper in the world could have pulled off that save.
Afterward, Perotti stood scratching his head, unable to believe that he missed that opportunity to score. The save was just another reminder of who the best goalkeeper was on the planet at that time.
1. Captaining the side to La Decima
Real Madrid’s obsession to win a tenth European Cup was popularly dubbed as ‘La Decima’. Upon a win, Real Madrid would have been the first club to touch double figures in terms of European titles. But, the last title, ‘La Novena’ was won back in 2002 by a side led by Fernando Hierro.
2014 was thus the year of the tenth or La Decima. The final, however, wasn’t Iker Casillas’s best performance. He made a huge blunder early on as a corner was cleared only as far as Juanfran’s head and made its way back to the penalty area where Iker was way advanced from his line. Diego Godin headed home and Atletico Madrid led in the 36th minute.
The game is remembered for Sergio Ramos’s 93rd-minute equalizer post which Real Madrid added 3 more to seal a 4-1 win and their 10th European title, the first in 12 long years. Nonetheless, Iker Casillas remains the captain to have led Real Madrid to a unique feat.
The 2014 Champions League title is also the only title Casillas won as the captain of the side. Getting the first hand at such a historical European Cup isn’t an ordinary feat and hence, remains the greatest ever San Iker moment of his Real Madrid days.