Jean-Marie Pfaff at Runa Ralley 2007 cropped

The IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper is a football award given annually since 1987 to the best goalkeeper of the year as voted by the

International Federation of Football History & Statistics The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

(IFFHS). The votes are cast by IFFHS's editorial staff as well as experts from different continents. The winner is announced at the end of the year. The winning goalkeeper is awarded a gold trophy at the ''World Football Gala''. Italy's

Gianluigi Buffon Gianluigi Buffon (; born 28 January 1978) is an Italian professional footballer who captains and plays as a goalkeeper for the club Parma. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He is one of the few recorded pl ...

, Spain's Iker Casillas and Germany's

Manuel Neuer Manuel Peter Neuer (; born 27 March 1986) is a German professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper and captains both club Bayern Munich and the Germany national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of the ...

have each won the award a record five times; Casillas won the award for five consecutive years between 2008 and 2012. Below is a list of the previous winners since the first award in 1987, which was won by Belgium's

Jean-Marie Pfaff Jean-Marie Pfaff (born 4 December 1953) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper who spent most of his professional career with Beveren and Bayern Munich. Pfaff was capped 64 times playing for Belgium, and partici ...

. Bayern Munich is the team with the most wins, with a total of nine.

Men's winners

has made Top 3 an unprecedented 14 times (record). This includes: 5 wins (joint record with Neuer & Casillas), 6 Runner-up (record) & 3 3rd placed.

List of winners

Statistics

Continental winners

Bold indicates the World's Best Man Goalkeeper winner.

All-time World's Best Goalkeeper ranking (since 1987)

The World's Best Man Goalkeeper of the Century (1901–2000)

At the end of the 20th century, the IFFHS also voted on the World's Goalkeeper of the Century, won by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

's Lev Yashin running ahead of

Gordon Banks Gordon Banks (30 December 1937 – 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional caree ...

and

Dino Zoff Dino Zoff (; born 28 February 1942) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the oldest ever winner of the World Cup, which he earned as captain of the Italian national team in the 1982 tournament, at th ...

The World's Best Man Goalkeeper of the Decade (2001–2010)

In 2011, the IFFHS also voted on The World's Best Goalkeeper of the 21st Century's first decade, taking into consideration goalkeepers' performances during the first decade of the 21st century, between 2001 and 2011; the award was won by the

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

running ahead of Iker Casillas and

Petr Čech Petr Čech (; born 20 May 1982) is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He also plays semi-professional ice hockey as a goaltender for Chelmsford Chieftains. Described by numerous players, pundits and managers as ...

The World's Best Man Goalkeeper of the Past 25 Years: 1987–2012

In 2012, the IFFHS also voted on The World's Best Goalkeeper of the past 25 years, taking into consideration goalkeepers' performances between 1987 – the year of the award's inception – and 2012; the award was won by the

running ahead of Iker Casillas and

Edwin van der Sar Edwin van der Sar (; born 29 October 1970) is a Dutch football executive and former professional player who is currently the chief executive of AFC Ajax, with whom he began his senior playing career in the early 1990s; he is considered to be a m ...

The World's Best Man Goalkeeper of the Decade (2011–2020)

Manuel Neuer, Germany national football team (06)

In 2021, the IFFHS voted on The World's Best Goalkeeper of the Decade 2011–2020, taking into consideration goalkeepers' performances during 2011–2020; the award was won by Manuel Neuer running ahead of Giangluigi Buffon and Thibaut Courtois.World's Best Goalkeeper of the Decade 2011-2020 : Manuel Neuer
- IFFHS, 14 January 2021

Women's winners

List of winners

Statistics

Continental winners

Bold indicates the World's Best Woman Goalkeeper winner.

The World's Best Woman Goalkeeper of the Decade (2011–2020)

References

External links

IFFHS official website

The World's Best Goalkeeper
at IFFHS.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Iffhs World's Best Goalkeeper International Federation of Football History & Statistics Association football goalkeeper awards Association football player non-biographical articles

Men's winners

List of winners

Statistics

Continental winners

All-time World's Best Goalkeeper ranking (since 1987)

The World's Best Man Goalkeeper of the Century (1901–2000)

The World's Best Man Goalkeeper of the Decade (2001–2010)

The World's Best Man Goalkeeper of the Past 25 Years: 1987–2012

The World's Best Man Goalkeeper of the Decade (2011–2020)

Women's winners

List of winners

Statistics

Continental winners

The World's Best Woman Goalkeeper of the Decade (2011–2020)

See also

References

External links