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"Even though he's still growing physically and mentally, he's already on the road to becoming one of the best keepers around. Any other outcome would be a disappointment", said the Atletico Madrid goalkeeper coach Diego Diaz Garrido in 2010
After bagging the 20th place in the Ballon d'Or 2017, with the legendary Gianluigi Buffon being the only goalkeeper in front of him, one could say that he is well on his way to becoming the best goalkeeper in world football.
From being a vulnerability in the team to becoming the backbone of Manchester United, his journey has been a spectacle to watch for all the football fans in the world. Things haven't always come easy for the Spaniard as he was thrown into the spotlight at a very young age with the monstrous duty of replacing the club legend, Edwin Van der Sar.
Every movement has been scrutinized by both the media and fans alike and every mistake punished. But his teammates, coaches and most importantly the man who signed him, Sir Alex Ferguson always stood behind him.
Starting from Ferguson's last season, he developed leaps and bounds and became the best player at Manchester United, often winning them matches single-handedly with his unconventional shot-stopping ability, distribution of the ball across the pitch, and command in the box.
Let us quickly go down the memory lane and have a look at a few performances that have defined his career so far:
#5 Chelsea 3-3 Manchester United - Premier League
On the 5th of February 2012, United travelled to Chelsea, searching for their first win at Stamford Bridge in over a decade. Things, however, did not go as planned initially as Chelsea rallied to a 3-0 lead. United, however, turned it around in the second half and levelled the game with two penalties from Wayne Rooney and a header from Xavier Hernandez.
In the dying moments of the game, Chelsea were awarded a freekick just outside United's box. Juan Mata, who was having a great game, stepped up to take the freekick. He took a near perfect curling shot at the goal and the Chelsea faithful started to celebrate the goal as the ball was reaching the top corner.
De Gea, though, had other ideas. He made an excellent stretched jump, palmed the ball away and saved a certain point for his team. He would then go on to make one more excellent save from a Cahill long-range shot in the stoppage time.
"When you look back over a season there are lots of defining moments and key goals. But, I suppose, from a team point of view, and particularly from a personal point of view, the fact the save was right at the last minute was decisive.", De Gea explains.
It was such a pivotal moment in his career that when he was asked about the favourite save of his career, he mentions this.
Needless to say, after months of criticism from his own fans back then, he showed what he was capable of in this match. He then went on to play 19 matches later that season, earning 8 clean sheets, cementing his place as the starting goalkeeper in the process.
#4 Real Madrid 1-1 Manchester United - UEFA Champions League
During the 2012/13 season, the round of 16 draw of the UEFA Champions League saw the two heavyweights pitted against each other. There were many narratives that the fans were looking forward to, one of them being the return of Cristiano Ronaldo to Old Trafford.
For de Gea though, this was even more personal as he was an Atletico Madrid youth product. In the first leg of the tie at Santiago Bernebeau, he put in a great performance and denied one of the best attacking teams in world football precisely 8 times. The match ended 1-1 as he stopped players like Fabio Coentrao, Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain from scoring.
Sir Alex Ferguson praised him for his incredible "coming of age" performance, one which made him a hero from a villain. He was now thoroughly established in this team as the number one goalkeeper, with match-winning performances against Sunderland and Manchester City preceding this encounter.
A performance of such magnitude against bitter rivals from his days in Spain was just a cherry on the top.
He would later go on to win the Premier League title and finish the season with 11 clean sheets, earning himself a place in the PFA Premier League team of the year.
#3 Manchester United 2-1 Everton - Premier League
Back in the 2014/15 season, when Louis van Gaal was in charge of Manchester United, the team was still struggling to reach the heights of the Ferguson era. A home fixture against a struggling Everton was a perfect opportunity to get back on track.
After a first-half goal from Di Maria, Everton started to get a stronghold on the match. Luke Shaw gave away a clumsy penalty which Baines stepped up to take. Baines, as everyone knew, was the best penalty taker in the league and his record stood at 14/14 before this match.
Baines, however, took a tame side-footed shot to his left. It was well placed but De Gea did extremely well to reach the corner-bound shot and stop it. The save brought a huge roar from the fans in the stadium as it amped up the tempo of the game. Baines redeemed himself later by providing a pinpoint cross for Steven Naismith to convert, thus levelling the score at 1-1.
The game was well balanced as both teams looked like they could win, but United quickly got back into the lead with a goal from Falcao in the 62nd minute.
Everton played through their skin and only a series of wonderful saves from De Gea, especially the save from the volley of Oviedo in the dying moments of the game gave United the three points. De Gea, himself, recalls this as one of his best performances in a United jersey.
#2 Manchester United 3-0 Liverpool - Premier League
"We are now seeing a huge improvement in his game. And he is winning United match after match, which is what I expect from a United goalkeeper. He has now become a great goalkeeper."- Gary Neville in 2014
His description of De Gea was spot on as he was now making ridiculous physics-defying stops week in and week out. Not long after the Everton heroics, he put in a performance of the season against another Merseyside team, Liverpool.
The United-Liverpool match is arguably one of the biggest matches in England, and more often than not, there is a performance or two that decides the result of this fixture either way.
In the encounter of December 2014, De Gea was the one to etch his name into the United folklore as he subdued wave after wave of attack from Liverpool. Raheem Sterling can count himself extremely unlucky that he did not come out the fixture with at least a goal in hand as he came across a De Gea who was determined to stop anything that was thrown his way.
Notably, De Gea stopped many 1v1 shots from Sterling, and Mario Balotelli, as United kept pinging in goals on the other side, even though they seemingly didn't have any right to do so.
On any other day, the performance would have resulted in a Liverpool win but De Gea was the saviour once again, as United capitalised on his 9 saves to come out with all three points and bragging rights in hand.
Van Gaal rightly said that De Gea was the "saving grace" of that United team with "unbelievable" performances that season.
#1 Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United - Premier League
If you look at just the statistics and not the scoreline, anyone would have said that Arsenal comfortably won the fixture against United, with their tally of 33 shots in reply to United's meagre 8. You would have thought that only a miracle would flip the result the other way.
What transpired that night, was nothing short of miraculous. After quickly taking a 2-0 against an Arsenal backline that would seemingly crumble even at the sneeze of a newborn baby, United sat back and started to defend deep. Arsenal quickly took control of the tide, nicked one back through Alexandre Lacazette and peppered United's goal with shots from all over the pitch.
And de Gea, somehow, saved each and every one of them, getting up and going ahead with the game with the calm demeanour of a genius at work. He saved shots from Hector Bellerin, Alexandre Lacazette, Sead Kolasinac, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, seeming rather casual.
He even palmed away a clumsy clearance from Lukaku with what felt like a freeze frame save. One moment particularly stood out as he kept out a goal-bound effort from Lacazette and also the follow-up shot from the onrushing Alexis Sanchez.
Arsene Wenger rightly commented that his team should have been more clinical and decisive on the pitch. But when De Gea decided to turn up, it felt like no amount of surgical brilliance would be enough to get the ball across his goal line.
He finished the match with a Premier League record-equalling total of 14 saves and also the respect of every football fan who witnessed his magic that night, cementing his place as the best shot stopper in the world right now.
