Any list of Europe’s best goalkeepers would throw up a lot familiar names – Thibaut Courtois, Gianluigi Buffon, Petr Cech and Manuel Neuer would all figure highly no matter who was asked.
Indeed, that quarter feature highly in the Euro Fantasy League’s highest scoring goalkeepers. Starting with Courtois, they hold the fourth to seventh rankings but it may come as a surprise to see not one of them cracks the top three.
They are the No.1s for title challengers in what are arguably Europe’s strongest leagues and Cech is the only one not holding the gloves for the league leaders. But none of the four, nor any other goalkeeper, can top Lille’s Vincent Enyeama.
Enyeama is the highest scoring goalkeeper in Euro Fantasy League, with 560 points, despite his club, Lille, falling well adrift of Ligue 1’s leaders Paris Saint-Germain. But Los Dogues have a superb defensive record, conceding only 20 goals in 33 games – compared to 19 in 33 for PSG.
For his part, Enyeama has kept 20 clean sheets in 33 games to the 18 in 33 of his PSG counterpart, Salvatore Sirigu, who is third on the Euro Fantasy League points list. Neuer has conceded fewer goals than any top 10 goalkeeper but Enyeama’s 20 conceded is fewer than Cech’s 24 and substantially fewer than the 32 let in by Real Madrid’s Diego Lopez or the 31 of AS Saint-Etienne’s Stephane Ruffier.
Enyeama is also the second-cheapest goalkeeper in the top 10, valued at only €5.5m – compared to €11.5m for Sirigu and €14.5m for Neuer, the most expensive in the top 10. Roma’s Morgan De Sanctis, third, would cost €7m to have in your team.
Ligue 1 fairs rather well in the goalkeepers stakes. Enyeama and Sirigu are joined by Ruffier to make the French league the joint-most represented. Only La Liga can also boast three representatives – Courtois, Lopez and Victor Valdes of Barcelona. It suggests that Ligue 1 is hiding some bargains both for Euro Fantasy League and a real world application.
With only 7% of Euro Fantasy League teams choosing Enyeama, having faith in the Nigerian could have been telling. Courtois features in 12% of teams and while his score of 495 is nothing to dismiss, it falls well short of Enyeama’s.
As noted, Enyeama is the second-cheapest goalkeeper in the top 10. The cheapest is Lopez, available for only €4m but generating 380 points. His Real Madrid displays have been enough to keep Iker Casillas out of the league XI and in the wake of Valdes’ World Cup-ruining injury, Lopez has been touted as a possible replacement in the Spain squad this summer.
Lopez has 15 clean sheets for Madrid this season, from 33 appearances. It could be argued that it’s easier to keep goal for Madrid than Lille and the stats back that up, Enyeama making more saves on average than Lopez, but also keeping more clean sheets, which offers further evidence for the storming season being enjoyed by Enyeama.
