Lev Yashin

Lev Yashin is the goalkeeper the others still get measured against. He spent his whole professional career at Dynamo Moscow, from 1950 to 1970, and in 1963 won the Ballon d'Or, something no other keeper has managed. He played in all black (really a very dark blue), which brought him the nicknames Black Panther and, most famously, Black Spider, as if he had eight arms to reach almost everything. His start was anything but smooth. Spotted playing for a Moscow factory team, he joined Dynamo's youth side, then marked his debut in a 1950 friendly by conceding a soft goal straight from the opposing keeper's clearance. He played only twice in the league that year and waited until 1953 for another senior game, learning from his mentor and rival Alexei "Tiger" Khomich and keeping goal for Dynamo's ice hockey team. What set him apart was more than shot-stopping. Keepers of that era mostly stayed on their line and waited. Yashin barked orders at his defenders, left his line to claim crosses and sprinted out to meet forwards bearing down on goal, sometimes leaving the box to snuff out danger early. He was among the first to punch the ball clear when catching it was too risky, and he liked a quick throw to launch a counter-attack. Goalkeeper captains were almost unheard of then, yet nobody doubted who ran the defence; even his wife told him he shouted too much during games. He was tall and imposing, admired for his agility, his bravery and a fine sense of where to stand, as well as for acrobatic reflex saves. The world took notice at the 1958 World Cup, the first one televised abroad, where his saves against a Brazil side with Garrincha and a 17-year-old Pelé stopped a 2–0 defeat from becoming a rout. FIFA credits him with more than 150 penalty saves, more than any other goalkeeper. He was not flawless. At the 1962 World Cup he played through two concussions and made mistakes that were out of character. Against Colombia the Soviets let a 4–1 lead slip to 4–4, one goal going in directly from a corner, and L'Équipe predicted the end of his career. Instead he starred for the Rest of the World against England in 1963 with a run of spectacular saves, won the Ballon d'Or that December, and led the Soviet Union to fourth place in 1966, their best World Cup finish. Asked for his secret, he would answer that the trick was "to have a smoke to calm your nerves, then toss back a strong drink to tone your muscles." His farewell match in Moscow drew 100,000 fans and stars such as Pelé, Eusébio and Franz Beckenbauer. FIFA named its World Cup goalkeeping award after him in 1994, and in 2019 France Football launched its Yashin Trophy for the season's best goalkeeper.