Goalkeepers who have saved the most penalties in the 21st century
The 21st century has seen the rise of numerous great goalkeepers, from the likes of Petr Cech and Alisson Becker to Gianluigi Buffon and Manuel Neuer.
Deciding who is the best keeper since the turn of the century is practically impossible. But what about when it comes to saving penalties? Sure, stopping penalties isn’t the most important aspect of being a top-level keeper. However, it’s definitely a great ability to have.
Since the start of the 21st century, the following goalkeepers have saved the most penalties, with some truly staggering numbers posted.
Note: for the purposes of this article, all data regarding penalties saved has been taken from Transfermarkt.com
#10= Gianluigi Donnarumma, Andres Palop, Francesco Antonioli, Bernd Leno – 16 penalties saved
In the #10 spot, we’ve got a four-way tie, with Gianluigi Donnarumma, Andres Palop, Francesco Antonioli and Bernd Leno all saving 16 penalties each since the turn of the century.
Of the four, Leno and Donnarumma are still active today while Antonioli and Palop both hung up their gloves a number of years ago.
Antonioli’s career actually dates back to the 1980s, as he broke through into the first team at Monza in the 1986-87 season. In the years that followed, he played for numerous top Italian sides – with his two stints at Bologna arguably being the highlight of his tenure.
Although many pundits would argue that injuries hampered him from reaching his full potential, he still ended his career with numerous trophies, including three Scudettos. Of the 16 penalties he saved, 14 came in Serie A – putting him 7th in that league’s all-time list.
Palop, meanwhile, plied his trade in his native Spain. Beginning his career with Valencia, he was largely used as a backup to first-choice keeper Santiago Canizares but rose to true fame when he moved to Sevilla in 2005. In his 8 seasons at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, he made nearly 300 appearances and became known as a penalty-saving expert.
The best example of this skill? The 2007 UEFA Cup final, a match that saw Sevilla defeat fellow Spaniards Espanyol to win the trophy. The game went to a penalty shoot-out, and Palop was the hero, saving 3 of 4 penalties against him.
Leno’s career has taken him from Bayer Leverkusen to Arsenal, who signed him in the summer of 2018 for a fee of around £22.5m. The German international became known as a penalty-stopping expert in the Bundesliga, saving from the likes of Roberto Firmino and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
Since arriving in the Premier League, meanwhile, he has saved one penalty – from Southampton’s dead-ball expert James Ward-Prowse.
Donnarumma, meanwhile, is usually considered one of the world’s best young goalkeepers. Breaking through into Milan’s first team in the 2015-16 campaign, he quickly became their first-choice keeper and began the 2016-17 season by saving a penalty from Torino’s Andrea Belotti.
In the years that have followed, he’s gone onto save spot-kicks from the likes of Mauro Icardi and even the great Cristiano Ronaldo.
#9= Diego Benaglio, Hans-Jorg Butt, Wojciech Szczesny, Antonio Mirante, Hugo Lloris, Sebastien Frey – 17 penalties saved
Six goalkeepers have saved 17 penalties in the 21st century, ranging from the retired Hans-Jorg Butt and Sebastien Frey to current top-level keepers Hugo Lloris and Wojciech Szczesny.
Both Antonio Mirante and Diego Benaglio are still active but are likely to reach the end of their careers soon at the age of 37 and 36 respectively.
German international Butt is perhaps the most curious entry here because while he was known for his penalty-saving exploits, he also garnered a reputation for scoring spot-kicks too. Remarkably for a goalkeeper, he was able to end his career with 26 Bundesliga goals to his name.
In a career that took him from Hamburg to Bayern Munich, he saved from notable names such as Michael Ballack and Luis Figo.
French international Frey spent the majority of his top-level career in Italy, where he made over 400 Serie A appearances, mainly for Parma and Fiorentina. During that time, he stopped spot-kicks from the likes of Kaka, Luca Toni and Edinson Cavani.
Switzerland’s Benaglio, meanwhile, became well-known as Wolfsburg’s #1 from the 2007-08 campaign all the way through to 2016-17. His exploits in terms of saving penalties were instantly visible as he was able to save two spot-kicks on his debut in a DFB-Pokal shoot-out against Schalke.
Most recently, he stopped a penalty from current Newcastle United star Allan Saint-Maximin during a Ligue 1 game for Monaco against Nice.
Italy’s Mirante is best remembered for his run as Parma’s goalkeeper at the turn of the last decade. He made 204 appearances for them before moving to Bologna in 2015, and currently acts as Roma’s backup keeper. His most recent penalty save came in May 2019 from Genoa’s Antonio Sanabria.
Tottenham Hotspur’s current #1, Lloris has also won the World Cup with France and has gained a reputation as a penalty expert over the years. The 2018-19 season saw him make crucial spot-kick stops from Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero. The 2019-20 campaign saw him save from Ilkay Gundogan.
That save was, in fact, his 4th penalty save against Manchester City, having also stopped penalties from Aguero and Gabriel Jesus in earlier seasons.
Szczesny, of course, began his career at Arsenal before moving to Serie A on loan with Roma. He’s now Juventus’ #1 and is widely recognised as one of Europe’s best goalkeepers.
His brief Premier League run saw him save penalties from the likes of Wayne Rooney and Edin Dzeko, while he’s saved from Gonzalo Higuain and Ciro Immobile since taking over as #1 at Juventus.