10 Best Goalkeepers of All Time: Tips.gg Ranking

Guadalajara, June 1970. Pelé meets a cross eight yards out, powers a downward header toward the bottom corner and turns away with his arms raised. Gordon Banks gets there anyway.

Ranking the best goalkeepers of all time is harder than ranking any other position. Goalkeepers are judged on absence — the goals that never happened, the tournaments that turned on a single fingertip. There are no assists to count.

This is our definitive goalkeeper ranking: ten men who defined the position across seven decades, judged on honours, longevity, individual recognition and influence on how the job itself is played.

Criteria for Ranking the Best Goalkeepers of All Time

A goalkeeper ranking spanning the 1950s to the 2020s cannot rely on a single statistic. Save percentages did not exist for most of Gilmar’s career, and expected goals on target arrived long after Peter Shilton retired. So we weighted trophies, peer recognition and durability alongside the numbers that do survive.

Our primary metric is major honours won as a first-choice goalkeeper — World Cups, continental titles, European Cups and league championships. Secondary metrics cover longevity at elite level, individual awards such as the Yashin Trophy and IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper, and verifiable statistical records including clean sheets, unbeaten minutes and caps.

Data is drawn from FIFA and UEFA competition archives, IFFHS award records, national federation cap totals and league statistical databases.

Criterion	Description	Weight
Major honours	World Cups, European Cups and league titles won as first choice	High
Longevity	Years spent at the top level without a drop in standard	High
Individual awards	Yashin Trophy, IFFHS awards, Ballon d’Or placings	Medium
Statistical record	Clean sheets, unbeaten minutes, caps, appearance totals	Medium
Influence	How far the player changed what the position demands	Medium
Era context	Standard of the competition and the rules of the day	Medium

One golden tournament does not outrank fifteen years of consistency. That principle shapes everything below.

Top 10 Goalkeepers in the World of All Time

Ten names, seven countries, six decades. What follows is a countdown from tenth place to the man we rate as the greatest goalkeeper of all time — and the gaps between them are narrower than the order suggests.

Three Germans make the list, reflecting a national tradition of goalkeeping that runs unbroken from the 1970s to today. Italy contribute two, including our top pick. Brazil, Spain, Denmark and England complete a list that stretches from the 1958 World Cup to the modern Champions League era.

Here are the top 10 goalkeepers in the world of all time:

Rank	Goalkeeper	Country
10	Gilmar	Brazil
9	Oliver Kahn	Germany
8	Sepp Maier	West Germany
7	Peter Shilton	England
6	Peter Schmeichel	Denmark
5	Gordon Banks	England
4	Iker Casillas	Spain
3	Dino Zoff	Italy
2	Manuel Neuer	Germany
1	Gianluigi Buffon	Italy

#10 Gilmar | Brazil

Gylmar dos Santos Neves remains the only goalkeeper to start and win two consecutive World Cups. He conceded four goals in six matches in Sweden in 1958 and five in six in Chile in 1962, anchoring the two Brazil sides that turned the tournament into a showcase. At Santos he kept goal behind a defence expected to attack, which meant long stretches of isolation and sudden one-on-one exposure — a profile modern analysts would recognise instantly.

• Won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups as Brazil’s undisputed first choice
• Conceded just nine goals across twelve World Cup matches
• 94 caps for Brazil between 1953 and 1969
• Won consecutive Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental Cups with Santos alongside Pelé
• Voted the best Brazilian goalkeeper of the 20th century

#9 Oliver Kahn | Germany

Kahn dragged a limited Germany squad to the 2002 final almost single-handedly and became the only goalkeeper in history to be named the tournament’s best player. A year earlier he had won the Champions League by saving three penalties in the shootout against Valencia. Der Titan combined shot-stopping with a level of on-field aggression that made his back four visibly quicker to their positions.

• Won the Golden Ball at the 2002 World Cup — the only goalkeeper ever to do so
• Saved three penalties in the 2001 Champions League final shootout, and was man of the match
• Eight Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich, and a goalkeeping record 557 Bundesliga appearances
• Record four consecutive UEFA Best European Goalkeeper awards, plus three IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper titles

#8 Sepp Maier | West Germany

Nicknamed the Cat from Anzing for his reflexes, Maier was the constant behind West Germany’s greatest side. He won the 1972 European Championship and the 1974 World Cup, then took three consecutive European Cups with Bayern between 1974 and 1976 — conceding one goal across the five games of his four European finals. His 442 straight Bundesliga appearances remain a German record that no player in any position has approached since.

• World Cup winner in 1974 and European champion in 1972
• Three consecutive European Cups with Bayern Munich (1974, 1975, 1976)
• 442 consecutive Bundesliga appearances — still the outright German record
• Named German Footballer of the Year three times (1975, 1977, 1978), a rarity for a goalkeeper

#7 Peter Shilton | England

No career in English football compares to Shilton’s longevity. He made 1,005 league appearances and won a record 125 England caps, keeping ten clean sheets in seventeen World Cup matches across three tournaments. Under Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest he won back-to-back European Cups, and his positioning — narrow angles, minimal movement — became the template taught in English coaching manuals for a generation.

• England men’s record of 125 caps, held since 1989
• Record 1,005 senior league appearances across a 30-year career
• Two European Cups with Nottingham Forest (1979, 1980)
• Ten clean sheets in seventeen World Cup finals matches, a record shared with Fabien Barthez

#6 Peter Schmeichel | Denmark

Schmeichel won a European Championship with a Denmark squad that had not qualified, then spent eight years making Manchester United’s defence look better than it was. He lifted the Champions League as stand-in captain in his final United appearance, completing the 1999 treble. His starfish save — arms and legs spread wide at close range — was imported wholesale from handball, and goalkeeper coaches now teach it as standard.

• Won Euro 1992 with Denmark after the squad entered as late replacements
• Five Premier League titles and the 1999 treble with Manchester United
• Captained United to the Champions League in his last match for the club
• Named IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper in 1992 and 1993
• Best clean-sheet ratio in Premier League history, at 42%

#5 Gordon Banks | England

Banks won the 1966 World Cup conceding three goals in six matches, unbeaten until Eusébio’s semi-final penalty ended a 721-minute England record. Four years later came the save from Pelé that is still replayed more often than most goals. He was named FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year six years running between 1966 and 1971 — a monopoly no goalkeeper has matched since. A car crash in 1972 cost him the sight in his right eye and ended his England career at 34; he later played two seasons in the NASL with one eye, and was named its goalkeeper of the year in 1977.

• World Cup winner in 1966, conceding three goals in the entire tournament
• FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year six consecutive times (1966–1971)
• Made the most famous save in football history against Pelé in 1970
• 73 England caps with 35 clean sheets and only nine defeats

#4 Iker Casillas | Spain

Casillas captained Spain through Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 — the only sustained international treble in the modern game. He conceded two goals across the whole of South Africa 2010 and denied Arjen Robben one-on-one in the final with an outstretched foot. Three Champions League titles with Real Madrid, fourteen years apart at either end, frame a career of unusual reach.

• Captained Spain to Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012
• Conceded only two goals in Spain’s entire 2010 World Cup campaign, winning the Golden Glove
• Three Champions League titles with Real Madrid (2000, 2002, 2014)
• Named IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper five years in a row (2008–2012), a joint record
• Record 102 international clean sheets — the first goalkeeper to reach 100

#3 Dino Zoff | Italy

Zoff holds the record that best defines a goalkeeper: 1,142 consecutive minutes unbeaten in international football, set between 1972 and 1974 and unbeaten since. He won the European Championship in 1968 and then, at 40, captained Italy to the 1982 World Cup title — still the oldest player to win the tournament. Six Serie A titles with Juventus came alongside 330 consecutive league appearances, eleven years without missing a match.

• Record 1,142 minutes without conceding for Italy, unbroken for over five decades
• Oldest World Cup winner in history, lifting the trophy aged 40
• European champion in 1968 and six-time Serie A winner with Juventus
• 112 caps for Italy across a fifteen-year international career — a national record until Buffon

#2 Manuel Neuer | Germany

Neuer did not invent the sweeper-keeper, but he made it compulsory. His 2014 World Cup — Golden Glove, a title, and a round-of-16 performance against Algeria in which 21 of his 59 touches came outside his own penalty area — forced every elite club to reconsider what they were recruiting. Two Champions League titles and two trebles with Bayern followed, plus a third-place Ballon d’Or finish in 2014, still the most recent podium place by a goalkeeper.

• Won the 2014 World Cup and the tournament’s Golden Glove
• Two Champions League titles and two continental trebles with Bayern Munich
• Finished third in the 2014 Ballon d’Or — no goalkeeper has made the podium since
• Named IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper five times, a record shared with Buffon and Casillas

#1 Gianluigi Buffon | Italy

Buffon’s 2006 World Cup is the single finest tournament any goalkeeper has produced: two goals conceded in seven matches, one an own goal and one a penalty, with 453 minutes unbeaten and the Yashin Award to show for it. He then finished second in that year’s Ballon d’Or, matching Dino Zoff’s runner-up finish in 1973 — the only two goalkeepers to place that high since Lev Yashin won the award outright in 1963. Ten Serie A titles, 176 Italy caps and a record 974 minutes without conceding a Serie A goal at the age of 38 confirm the rest. He was still playing professionally at 45.

• World Cup winner in 2006, conceding two goals in seven matches
• Record 176 caps for Italy, more than any player in the country’s history
• Record 974 consecutive Serie A minutes without conceding, set in 2015/16
• Ten Serie A titles and five IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper awards across fourteen years
• Runner-up in the 2006 Ballon d’Or, level with Zoff for the best goalkeeper finish in six decades

Honourable Mentions

Any list of the best goalies of all time leaves out someone a supporter would fight for, and these five came closest.

Petr Čech (Czech Republic) holds the Premier League record with 202 clean sheets — still the only goalkeeper to pass 200 — and won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2012, a season in which his shootout saves in Munich decided the final. His four Premier League Golden Gloves are a joint record, level with Joe Hart.

Edwin van der Sar (Netherlands) went 1,311 Premier League minutes without conceding in 2008/09, a record that still stands, and won the Champions League thirteen years apart with Ajax and Manchester United. His 130 caps made him the Netherlands’ most-capped player of any position until 2017, and they remain a national record for goalkeepers.

Ubaldo Fillol (Argentina) was voted the best goalkeeper of the 1978 World Cup on home soil and named Argentine Footballer of the Year in 1977 — a rare honour for a goalkeeper.

Gyula Grosics (Hungary) kept goal for the Golden Team, winning Olympic gold in 1952 and reaching the 1954 World Cup final. He was sweeping behind his defence decades before the sweeper-keeper had a name.

Ricardo Zamora (Spain) has an award named after him — La Liga’s Zamora Trophy — which is about as durable a legacy as a goalkeeper can leave.

Rankings like this shift as careers age and new evidence arrives. Čech in particular has a case for the top ten on volume alone.

Legacy and Future of the Best Goalkeepers in Football History

The most striking thing about this list is how much the job has changed. Gilmar was judged almost entirely on shot-stopping. Buffon was judged on shot-stopping, command of his box and leadership. Neuer is judged on all of that plus his passing range and his defensive line’s starting position. The role has absorbed responsibilities rather than swapped them.

That expansion is why the position has become more decisive, not less. A goalkeeper who cannot play out is now a tactical liability at elite level, which narrows the talent pool and raises the value of anyone who can do everything. The famous goalkeepers of the next twenty years will be picked on distribution as readily as reflexes.

Gianluigi Donnarumma is the clearest candidate to join this list — a European Championship, a Yashin Trophy and a Champions League already banked before his peak years. Behind him, Diogo Costa has the technical range and the age profile to build a comparable case if Portugal deliver a tournament.

Whether anyone displaces Buffon is another question. Longevity of that scale is not a skill you can coach.