Without exaggeration, football is today considered the most popular game sport in the world. Tens of thousands of fans fill the stadium stands. Millions of football fans watch matches broadcast on television. Why is this sport so attractive? What is the story of football? What are its rules? Who are the best goalkeepers in the world?
The first rules of football
Modern football originated in the Kingdom of England in the mid-19th century. In 1863, the first rules were developed, according to which it was forbidden to touch the ball with your hands. And the most interesting is that, according to the rules, even the player who defended the gate could not play with his hands.
Changes occurred only after 8 years, in 1871. Goalkeepers were allowed to use their hands to protect their own goal, but only within the goalkeeper area. It took more than 30 years before the goalkeepers were given permission to play with their hands in the entire penalty area, as now. This immediately increased the goalkeeper's benefit in the team. In fact, now he is becoming one of the main faces of football action.
The best goalkeepers of the world must have excellent reaction, jumping ability, courage and the ability to make quick decisions correctly. Over its one and a half century history, football has a lot of cool goalkeepers. Today we have the opportunity to recall and talk about some of them.
Rating of the best goalkeepers in the world
The best goalkeepers in the world of football are determined annually through a survey of specialists and fans. The largest football organizations and sports publications compile lists of leading athletes.
In 2000, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, based on a survey of sports journalists and football veterans, ranked the best players of the 20th century. In the nomination "The best goalkeeper of the world of the XX century", the greatest goalkeeper was given to the greatest goalkeeper of the Moscow Dynamo and the USSR national team Lev Ivanovich Yashin.
L. I. Yashin (USSR, 10/22/1929 - 03/20/1990)
The best goalkeeper in the world was born in 1929 in Moscow. As the son of workers at a defense plant, in 1941 he was evacuated along with his parents to the Volga region. There, in 1943, at the age of 14, Yashin began working at the plant as a locksmith.
Returning to Moscow in 1944, he devoted all his free time to football. Speaking for the Tushino football club, in 1949 Yashin was spotted and invited to Dynamo Moscow by the legendary coach of the White and Blue Arkady Ivanovich Chernyshev. It is worth saying that in those years, many players after the end of the summer season changed their boots for ice skating and became hockey players in the winter.
Achievements of L. I. Yashin
So the future best goalkeeper of the world for three seasons (1950-1953) played for the hockey club Dynamo. Together with the team in 1953, he won the USSR Cup and won bronze medals in the USSR hockey championship. In the same year, he became the main goalkeeper of the Dynamo football club and decided to concentrate fully on football. The very next year, Lev Ivanovich began to play for the USSR national team.
In total, for the national team of the country, Yashin played 74 matches. For 22 years spent in the Moscow “Dynamo” (1949-1970), he played 326 matches on the field. Three times in the composition of the team he became the winner of the Cup of the country and five times - the owner of gold medals of the USSR championship. Unlike in modern times, that USSR team was considered one of the strongest on the continent. As part of the national team, the best goalkeeper in the world became the champion of the 1956 Olympic Games and the winner of the 1960 European Cup. The highest personal award, of course, is the Golden Ball prize awarded to our legendary goalkeeper in 1963. This cup, awarded annually to the best football player in Europe, to this day has not held the hand of any Russian goalkeeper except Yashin.
The great athlete passed away at the age of 61. Recently, the leadership of Moscow Dynamo decided to assign the name of the legendary goalkeeper Lev Ivanovich Yashin to the club’s stadium under construction.
The best modern goalkeepers
To date, the top best goalkeepers in the world include goalkeepers such as Iker Casillas (Spain), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Manuel Neuer (Germany), Thibault Courtois (Belgium) and Claudio Bravo (Chile). Each of them has an excellent response and is fluent in all technical techniques. The best goalkeepers of the world have strong nerves and self-confidence. In 2014, FIFA declared the 28-year-old goalkeeper of Bayern Munich and the German national team Manuel Neuer the best goalkeeper of the year.
Manuel Neuer
A pupil of the football school "Schalke 04", in which he studied from the age of five, Manuel has gone from a children's team to the goalkeeper of the main team. At age 20, he spent his first base match for Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga match against Alemania. A little later in the match against Bayern (2: 2), he managed to prove himself in such a way that for a long time he ousted Frank Rost from the main goalkeeper at that time. He could not stand the competition with the young goalkeeper, left gelzenkirhentsev, and Neuer became the first goalkeeper of the team.
Largely thanks to his excellent game, Schalke in the 2009-2010 season becomes the vice-champion of Germany, and in the next season - the owner of the Cup of the country. For the first time in their history, the team reaches the semi-finals of the Champions League, and Neuer becomes the captain of Schalke 04. The best goalkeepers of the world got a worthy competitor in the face of the young Pitmen's goalkeeper. In an interview with the German press, he stated that his heart forever belongs to Schalke.
And then, like a bolt from the blue, there was information that Manuel would not renew the contract ending with the club and would go to the camp of his rivals - Bayern Munich. During the celebration of the victory in the German Cup, one of the cobalt fans publicly slapped the once favorite of the fans. Fans of both clubs took up arms against the player. Manuel received threats and insults in his address. Radical fans of the “Bavaria” picketed the club’s office with the requirements not to conclude a contract with the player.
The best goalkeepers in the world of football must cope with such psychological pressure. The Bavarian security service organized a meeting between Neuer and the fans, at which the parties reached a peace agreement. Four years have passed since then. During this time, Manuel won with Bayern and with the German national team many trophies and is rightfully one of the best goalkeepers in the world.