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The 2019/2020 LaLiga season officially kicks off on 16 August, with Barcelona traveling to face Athletic Bilbao. However, the possibility of that is still being debated upon, as the Spanish football authority received a court injunction to stop league matches being played on Fridays and Mondays.
Beyond the off-field issues, fans can look forward to another exhilarating season of top level football, with some of the best footballers on the planet battling it out in a bid to claim glory come May next year.
While a lot of the focus would be on superstar forwards and midfielders like Lionel Messi, Eden Hazard, Joao Felix and Luka Modric among others, there are a number of top quality goalkeepers in LaLiga who are sure to play a key role in deciding the fate of their respective clubs.
As the maxim goes: attacks win games, but defenses win titles and there is arguably nobody more important in the defense than the goalkeepers, as they act as the last shield at the back, protecting their goal from opposition attacks.
In LaLiga, awards are usually handed out at the end of the season to players who distinguish themselves with their performances, and one of the most prestigious of them all is the Zamora trophy.
Introduced in 1958 by Spanish publication Marca, the Zamora trophy is named after the late great Ricardo Zamora, who set himself apart from the rest with his tremendous goalkeeping displays in the 1920s and 1930s.
The trophy is handed out to the goalkeeper with the lowest goals-to-game ratio, with the criteria being that the goalie in question must have played at least 28 league games over the course of the season.
With just under three weeks to go until the start of the new campaign, LaLiga goalkeepers would be gearing up to play their part in helping their clubs achieve their objectives.
In this piece, we shall be having a rundown of the top four candidates to win the Zamora trophy next season.
#4 Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)
Thibaut Courtois is no stranger to picking up goalkeeping accolades, having been named the The best FIFA goalkeeper in 2018, while also winning the Zamora trophy on two occasions in the past with Atletico Madrid in addition to the Premier League and World Cup Golden Gloves among other individual accomplishments.
The 27-year-old finally completed a €31m transfer to the Bernabeu after forcing his way out of Chelsea last summer and his first season at the club did not exactly go to plan, as Real Madrid endured one of their most torrid campaigns.
His claim to the Zamora prize would hardly be strengthened by the fact that Real Madrid have historically been known to be porous at the back, with the massive 46 goals conceded last season serving as proof to the same.
Courtois also has history against him, as Iker Casillas’ win in 2008 is the only time the Zamora trophy was handed to a Real Madrid goalkeeper since 1992.
However, given his immaculate shot-stopping abilities and organisation skills, we just cannot write him off.
#3 Jasper Cillessen (Valencia)
After spending the last three seasons at Barcelona where he managed just five league appearances, Jasper Cillessen switched to the Estadio Mestalla for a fee of €35m with former Valencia goalkeeper Neto going the other way to Camp Nou.
Cillessen would be joining a Valencia side that has been forged into one of the most compact defenses in the league under Marcelino, and he would very much fancy his chances of getting his hands on the Zamora trophy come the end of the season.
Indeed, Los Che’s total of just 35 goals conceded last season was the joint-third lowest across LaLiga, and fans of the club would be hoping for Cillessen to strengthen the squad's defense further.
The 30-year-old is adept with the ball at the feet and has considerable reflexes. Most importantly, the Dutch international would use his improved playing time to remind everyone of his abilities.
#2 Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona)
After distinguishing himself with his performances for four seasons at Borussia Monchengladbach in the German Bundesliga, Marc-Andre ter Stegen moved to Barcelona in the summer of 2014 for the sum of €12m.
In his time at the Camp Nou, the 27-year-old has won 13 major trophies including a treble in his very first season with the Blaugrana.
A key member of a golden generation of German goalkeepers, ter Stegen is very much a bonafide modern goalkeeper, as he is comfortable with the ball at his feet while also possessing the requisite reflexes and aerial dominance associated with great shot-stoppers.
Rather surprisingly, for all of the collective accolades ter Stegen has won at Barcelona, he is yet to win the Zamora trophy, and the German international would be hoping the coming season will be one where he corrects this anomaly.
#1 Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid)
Having won the Zamora award for the last four seasons consecutively, Jan Oblak is once again the overwhelming favorite to win the coveted trophy for a record equaling fifth time.
The 26-year-old arrived at Atletico Madrid from Benfica in 2014, and has since gone on to cement his reputation as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, performing solidly as the last line of what is a notoriously stubborn Atleti defense, with his greatest moment coming in the 2015/2016 season when he conceded just 18 goals from 38 league matches to equal the 22-year-old LaLiga record for fewest goals conceded in a season.
The coming campaign would however present the biggest challenge of Oblak’s Atleti career yet, as the overhauling of the squad means that majority of his defensive wall has been disbanded, with Diego Godin, Filipe Luiz and Juanfran all having left the club.
