Past Neuer I struggle to think of a single consistently world class goalkeeper.

Well, Manuel Neuer sure is. Otherwise it is hard to tell.

I'm sorry, I don't watch too many teams outside the BL so regularly that I could make a verdict on several other favourites here - but for "world class", players should give top performances in most matches they play, not only in high profile matches.

I'm really sad that Gigi Buffon's age slowly catches up with him, but while he is still a great keeper who commands respect, he is not at the absolute top anymore. Iker Casillas was demoted, so he can't really show his class anymore match in, match out, and if his coach really thought him "world-class", he'd play him every match.

Thibaut Courtois probably goes into the direction, but there I don't know his performances against other teams in the league other than high profile matches, the same goes for Petr Cech for me.

Mind you, I'm going for the strict criteria like kicker does, so you could say there are quite some good keepers of "international quality", but currently practically only Manuel Neuer is in the real "world class" category.

Casillas was the GK that got RM to the CdR semi-final without conceding a single goal (first time in history of CdR) and they had a much difficult road to the final. RM failed to beat Atleti twice and Casillas not only beat them twice, but shut them out and is still the only RM player not to have lost to them. He's been quite good with the CL games as well, and I bet any neutral and many RM fans would say he should be starting every game, but again Carlo is in a sticky situation Mou left him in and he'd be not showing Lopez any justice if he dropped him. This obviously benefits RM as one plays all league games and other plays in CL and CdR. I think Casillas has done well and is still world class despite limited action and I'd also like to hail is characteristics and behaviour this season with the squad.

As far as world class goes its difficult. Neuer is obviously out of this world, but with GK experience is very important. I think Buffon is still pretty good as well as Casillas. Then theres Courtois, De Gea, Ter Stagen, Sommer, Szczesny, Mignolet, Begović all have potential, but need experience and some are still quite young.

Todays time it seem GK and defenders are really hard to find.

Neuer obviously and I still think Casillas is. As mentioned he's got an impressive clean sheet record this season.

Also again the term WC is subjective. For me GK's like Cech, Valdes etc are WC.

I'd still consider Casillas and Cech as WC along with Buffon despite not being as good as he was in his prime.

But yea, there isn't a keeper as consistent as Neuer around tbf.

Szczesny has been pretty good this season though although not WC

I, too, would rate Cech as world-class, he has just impressed me so many times and still does it.

There are some keepers, like Begovic, of whom you wonder how good would they be at a big club. It's sometimes difficult for mid-table / small club GKs to get the recognition they truly deserve, because those teams are bound to concede more goals anyway than the top teams.

If Valdes had any sort of aerial ability and could actually make accurate passes out of the back, he'd be world class.

MAtS is world class.

Fußball wrote:MAtS is world class.

MAtS might become world class when he doesn't mess up during international matches anymore.

Szczesny will soon take over this title.

Dont think anyone comes close to Neuer atm or anytime soon.

No joke, but if Tim Howard still played for Man U, he'd have been in the conversation as a top 5 keeper in the world over the last 5 years.

How can we say Neuer is the only world class goalkeeper in football? Considering he is protected expertly by the Bayern defence who are seldom troubled by Bundesliga attacks, does he really face a barrage of tests and tribulations to which puts his skills to the mantle on a consistent basis? No. He is an expert in penalties and is reliable when the defence fails him yet also has been suspect of some equally lax moments to which he should have done better. Nevertheless given Bayern is winning everything he will be named the best by default.

But how can we ignore Petr Cech for Chelsea?
Salvatore Sirigu who has been nothing short of outstanding for PSG for 2 years now.
Hugo Lloris despite his recent mistakes IS world class.
-Buffon for Italia and has recently kept Juve winning 16 out of their last 18 games and has been superb when called upon. Why look at the one he was before and yet ignore the superb performances of Gigi this year?
And Thibaut Courtois who despite his deficiencies has proven himself world class.
Same goes for Victor Valdes of Barcelona this year while a case can also be made for Pepe Reina.