Where does Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois rank among the best goalkeepers in the world in 2022?
Real Madrid and Belgium’s goalkeeping ace Thibaut Courtois had to face all sorts of disrespect despite a tremendous season individually in 2020-21 and another great run of form since the start of the new season. He didn’t even make it to the nominees for the FIFA Best Men’s Goalkeeper award. He finished 8th on the Yashin Trophy rankings, which is ridiculous, to say the least.
However, he has ignored all of this snubbing and has concentrated on his A-game this season and only a few other goalkeepers would match him stat-wise. This list is, therefore, an effort to rank the best goalkeepers among the top European Leagues at the present. It would be largely a statistical analysis with all stats being courtesy of FBref. While performance would be graded highly, parameters like career context, value to the team, level of competition, etc. would also be taken into account. We would look beyond awards and titles to determine who the top five goalkeepers are, based on present form.
5. Samir Handanovic, Inter Milan
Inter Milan is flying in the Serie A. And, Samir Handanovic has been the club’s mainstay as the man between the sticks and has absolutely brought out his A-game this season. The 37-year-old veteran has been as good as ever for the Nerazzurri playing and has featured in all 22 games for Inter so far in Serie A.
While he slightly edges Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy in key statistics like post-shot xG and a higher save percentage, Handanovic has been much, much better with his feet than the Senegalese keeper who had a close case of making it into the top five.
In fact, he has a higher save percentage (81.1) in domestic leagues than any of the players on this list, and yet, he ends up only fifth because of his form in the Champions League. While he isn’t the only one to blame for the goals inter has conceded in the Champions League, the veteran has struggled to keep up his save percentage on the continental stage.
His clean sheet percentage has been a healthy 45.5% and most importantly, Inter Milan has been able to put his brilliant goalkeeping form to good use. It looks like the Nerazzurri are on course to defending their Serie A crown and they have made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League after a long gap.
Samir Handanovic stops everything that can be stopped it is only the most accurately placed finishes or the snapshots resulting from defensive errors that have found a way through. It is great to see him play so well at 37 years of age.