There isn’t a single great football team throughout history that didn’t have a world-class goalkeeper.
While the role of shot-stopper is often a thankless one, it’s without question one of the most important on the field.
A top-quality goalkeeper improves a defense tenfold, which in turn makes the whole team a far more formidable proposition for an opponent.
Down the years, we’ve been blessed to watch some masters of the craft weave their magic between the posts.
Picking the very best of the bunch is, of course, near enough impossible and it’s a question we will not be attempting to answer today.
Instead, we’ll be looking over the 40 goalkeepers with the most clean sheets recorded for club and country, according to PopFoot.
Only one man has managed to surpass 500 and the percentage of games in which a clean sheet was kept is also available for each man.
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The 40 goalkeepers with the most clean sheets
40. David De Gea – 209 clean sheets (34%)
39. Andreas Isaksson – 210 clean sheets (36%)
38. Claudio Bravo – 211 clean sheets (37%)
37. Guillermo Ochoa – 217 clean sheets (28%)
36. Volkan Demirel – 218 clean sheets (37%)
35. Julio Cesar – 223 clean sheets (43%)
34. Yann Sommer – 228 clean sheets (33%)
33. Fernando Muslera – 229 clean sheets (34%)
32. Morgan de Sanctis – 229 clean sheets (36%)
31. Brad Friedel – 236 clean sheets (32%)

30. Ulrich Rame – 238 clean sheets (39%)
29. Dida – 238 clean sheets (44%)
28. Shay Given – 240 clean sheets (32%)
27. Steve Mandanda – 240 clean sheets (33%)
26. Jan Oblak – 242 clean sheets (47%)
25. Jussi Jaaskelainen – 245 clean sheets (31%)
24. Mark Schwarzer – 246 clean sheets (32%)
23. Kasper Schmeichel – 251 clean sheets (34%)
22. Gregory Coupet – 251 clean sheets (37%)
21. Joe Hart – 254 clean sheets (37%)

20. Tim Howard – 256 clean sheets (32%)
19. Victor Valdes – 259 clean sheets (44%)
18. Thibaut Courtois – 270 clean sheets (43%)
17. Fabien Barthez – 273 clean sheets (41%)
16. Allan McGregor – 276 clean sheets (39%)
15. Samir Handanovic – 278 clean sheets (36%)
14. Andriy Pyatov – 285 clean sheets (46%)
13. Rui Patricio – 291 clean sheets (39%)
12. David James – 292 clean sheets (32%)
11. Hugo Lloris – 301 clean sheets (36%)

10. Jens Lehmann – 309 clean sheets (36%)
9. Mickael Landreau – 309 clean sheets (39%)
8. Oliver Kahn – 322 clean sheets (37%)
7. Igor Akinfeev – 346 clean sheets (42%)
6. Manuel Neuer – 353 clean sheets (45%)
5. Pepe Reina – 358 clean sheets (40%)
4. Petr Cech – 397 clean sheets (44%)
3. Iker Casillas – 440 clean sheets (42%)
2. Edwin van der Sar – 440 clean sheets (46%)
- Gianluigi Buffon – 501 clean sheets (44%)

It’s not even close at the top! Buffon’s tally is simply out of this world and may not be equalled or surpassed for many years.
The Italian doesn’t possess the best record when it comes to clean sheet percentage, though.
That honor belongs to Oblak, who has not conceded a goal in 47% of the matches in which he has played – outrageous stuff.
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