10 Of The Worst Goalkeepers In History

The goalkeeping position is the most critical post, as they are the last line of defense, they man the sticks with great strength to take everything head-on and always need to be on their toes to keep the opposition attackers at bay.

As we know, every team player gets his share of the glory and spoils in regards to their performance and goalkeepers are no exception to this.

While the above statement is an undeniable fact, we’ve seen many fantastic goalkeepers in between the stick who went on to become the best shot-stopper in football history.

While, on the other hand, we’ve also seen goalkeepers you wouldn’t want your team to be associated with.

10 Of The Worst Goalkeepers Since 2010

Goalkeepers are usually called into action by the opposing team, as such they’re often expected to protect the team from the inevitable, and when they make terrible gaffes they’re often faced with a lot of criticism from both the fans and media.

1. Loris Karius – (Liverpool)

The German goalkeeper is the kind of man who depicts the popular saying that goes thus, ‘Fine boy no pimples‘.

Ironically the former Mainz 05 goalkeeper hugely failed in combining his fine boy face and physic into his goalkeeping skill in games for Liverpool and Besiktas where he also failed woefully to establish himself

Karius was seen as one of the fast-rising goalkeepers in Germany, who passed through all German youth ranks from U16 to U21.

This is definitely an organic development for a young goalkeeper with a lot of potential.

In his quest to become one of Die Mannschaft’s custodians. Manchester City loaned him to Mainz where he played for the reserve team and eventually went on to play for the main team after his loan move was made permanent.

The German started his Mainz 05 career awesomely, kept nine clean sheets, and saved two penalties. He was voted the second-best goalkeeper in a league poll of 235 Bundesliga players, ranking second behind Manuel Neuer in the 2015-16 campaign.

Having had a brilliant season with Mainz, Liverpool was tempted by his form and perhaps quality, and he was signed in 2016.

Unfortunately, his Liverpool career never comes close to the kind of form he showed the world back at Mainz, conceding 47 goals in his 49 Liverpool games.

Of course, his Champions League final blunder is still very fresh in the memories of every Kop faithful and would make their list of worst goalkeepers.

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2. Heurelho Gomes – (Watford)

The former Brazilian is another player on our list that also falls into the category of worst goalkeeper. Gomes’s quality came to the fore back in the Eredivisie with PSV Eindhoven where he shone like a million stars.

After his impressive performances with the Dutch side, he was snapped up by Tottenham Hotspur, following his move down to White Hart Lane (now Tottenham Stadium).

He couldn’t replicate the kind of form and quality he showed at PSV with Tottenham when he got his chance to man the stick despite then-manager Harry Redknapp believing so much in him and his quality.

As time went on at Tottenham, Gomes’s stint with the North London side was marred with a lot of gaffes. The fantastic Gomes who had an impressive display for PSV Eindhoven back in the Eredivisie, turned out to be an error-prone goalkeeper before he was later shipped to Watford.

3. Gunnar Nielsen – (FH Hafnarfjordur)

The signing of Nielsen by Manchester City in 2009 from Blackburn Rovers will forever remain the weirdest signing the Cityzens ever made.

Looking at the fact that the keeper couldn’t even manage to get a single match appearance for the ‘Riverside’, very surprising right?

Nielsen City’s career can definitely be classified as perhaps a misfire in the club’s history and one of the worst goalkeepers.

Just like how his Blackburn Rovers career turned out, the same also applied to his City career which only lasted a total of fourteen minutes, where he came on to replace the injured former Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given.

Nielsen was so poor that he couldn’t even receive a call-up from his national team Faroe Island, despite how low in terms of quality the Islanders were, he still couldn’t find his way in there.

After his exit from Manchester City, he moved to Wrexham, Tranmere Rovers, and made just 6 match appearances combined for both clubs. He had 9 appearances with Silkeborg before he moved to Motherwell and Stjarnan where he relatively had some kind of decent appearances.

4. Stephen Bywater – (Retired)

The English Premier League has indeed seen a lot of great goalkeepers in the between sticks wowed the fans, while on the other hand, it has also seen some set of funny goalkeepers with very poor records.

Bywater is officially listed among the worst goalkeepers due to his poor stats in the history of the Premier League.

The Englishman played an important role in Derby County’s campaign in the English topflight appearing 19 times for the ‘Rams’.

He conceded more than 43 goals with only two clean sheets during his stint with Derby, before moving on to other clubs which include Sheffield Wednesday, Millwall, and Doncaster Rovers among others.

The former England U21 international truly deserves his place in this list as one of the worst goalkeepers in the world between 2010-20 as his stint with Derby, and the other clubs he donned their jersey simply showed how poor he was in between the stick.

5. Peter Abrahamsson – (BK Hacken)

Goalkeepers are often seen as the messiah of a team especially when the team really needs them to come good and keep the opposing side at bay.

However, when a rush of blood comes to the fore in a match, the team of such a goalkeeper would suffer greatly in the end.

Talking of rush of blood, that was exactly what happened to the Swedish goalkeeper with his former club Orgryte against Hammarby where he was sent off having deliberately handed the ball miles away from his box

Abrahamsson’s calamitous gaffe against Hammarby wasn’t just the only one he did make, his error against Hammarby will forever hunt him as a goalkeeper.

No wonder the former Sweden U19 shot-stopper didn’t really have a fantastic senior team stint except for the two caps he had in 2017.

6. Peter Enckelman – (Retired)

The former Finnish goalkeeper is also one of the worst goalkeepers the footballing world has ever seen grace the pitch.

Enckelman enjoyed a number of stints with different clubs which include Cardiff City, Blackburn Rovers, and Hearts in the Scottish league.

Enckelman was most popular at Aston Villa, although not with impressive performances throughout his stay with the Midlands side.

One of his gaffes that comes to mind and perhaps the one that tainted his career was the one he made in the Midlands derby against Birmingham City, where a throw-in was passed to him by his teammate (Mellberg) and surprisingly the ball rolled into the back of the net.

Following his embarrassing error against Birmingham City, there was love lost between him and the Aston Villa fans and was never himself throughout his spell with other clubs he played for. He only made two miserable appearances for Blackburn Rovers following his exit from Villa.

7. Stuart Taylor – (Retired)

Being the third choice at Arsenal’s academy was a testament to how his goalkeeping career would turn out in the end, although Taylor did show a whole lot of potential with the Gunners youth team.

However, he couldn’t translate his potential into his game when he left Arsenal for Manchester City where he won the league with the city side.

Taylor’s stint with Aston Villa isn’t the kind of footballer would look back at and be happy. During his time with Aston Villa, he found it very hard to become a second-choice goalkeeper, with Thomas Sorensen still very much in great form.

According to one of his statements where he said:

“I recalled being told that I would play if Sorensen is injured or in poor form, but the chance to play never materialized”, I kept being told that I would play this game or that game, and I never did.

Despite Taylor not getting enough chances to man the sticks for the Eastlands side despite Sorensen leaving the club, he further went down the pecking order behind Brad Friedel and Brad Guzan at the start of the 2008-09 campaign.

Taylor left Aston Villa having played just 12 league matches in 4 seasons.

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8. Tony Warner – (Retired)

Another contender for the worst goalkeeper of all time belongs to the much-maligned Englishman.

Warner notably played in the Premier League for Millwall, Fulham among other clubs. However, Liverpool and Hull City can’t look back in time and really say a big thank you to the former Trinidad & Tobago goalkeeper, due to the fact that he didn’t play a single match for them.

He had a stint in the Scottish league with the league giants Celtic and Aberdeen.

We can simply say Warner had a nomadic career, he also played for Swindon Town in the lower league, Norwich City, Leeds United, Barnsley, Leicester City, Charlton Athletic, Tranmere Rovers, and Scunthorpe United.

Warner’s notable gaffe can be traced back to his days at Craven Cottage when Fulham was playing against Bolton in the 2007-08 campaign opener. He allowed a throw-in to drop off his hands, and unfortunately, that error caused his team. Three days later he repeated a worrying mistake that led to a lame goal scored by the former Egypt international Mido.

9. Charles Itandje – (Retired)

Thought of the erraticness of Bogdan and you definitely get a picture of the former Cameroonian international Itandje. Charles Itandje secured a move to Liverpool from RC Lens following an impressive performance in the French topflight.

Liverpool may have thought the former Cameroonian international would settle in seamlessly in the team, and perhaps go on to give the irreplaceable Pepe Reina a stiff competition.

He was signed as a backup to Pepe Reina at the time, he did manage just seven appearances including the humiliation at home to Barnsley in the FA Cup. Following his embarrassing performance in the FA Cup, Liverpool management had to sign a new backup goalkeeper as Itandje’s stint with Liverpool was term an awful spell.

Surprisingly, the English league is way different compared to Ligue I, and Itandje never came close.

10. Adam Bogdan – (Ferencvaros)

Bogdan impressed Bolton with his superb performances after a couple of stretches in the 2011/12 campaign when Jussi Jaaskelainen suffered some injuries.

Games went by and he started showing his true colors when he subsequently conceded 5 goals against Chelsea. He concedes another awful 102-yard goal from opposing keeper Tim Howard during a game against Everton.

Bodgan’s awful 20 Premier League appearances contributed to Bolton’s relegation. Bogdan was seen as a bizarre signing for then-Liverpool gaffer Brenden Rodgers, bringing him in the summer of 2015 as a backup to Mignolet.

Bogdan went on to endure a nightmare in his debut for Liverpool against Watford, surprisingly they were humiliated by the Hornets with three goals to nil, dropping a corner kick which allowed Nathan Ake to put the ball at the back of the net just three minutes into the match.

Another costly mistake that comes to mind is Bogdan conceding a goal directly from a corner at Exeter, a horrible mistake that didn’t help Liverpool’s career before he was finally shipped out.

Other Worst Goalkeepers In Football History

• Manuel Almunia
• Harald Schumacher
• Artur Boruc
• Roy Carroll
• Massimo Taibi
• Fraser Digby
• Peter Enckelman

Specials

• Kepa Arrizabalaga

As of now, Kepa is the most expensive goalkeeper in the history of football.

He can’t seem to make any move to save his life or the ball and he’s statistically the worst keeper in the Premier League right now.

Judging by his bloopers and gaffes, we can’t help but list him as a special in our list of worst goalkeepers.

Kepa Arrizabalaga has the worst save percentage of any keeper in the Premier League (55.4%).

127th — Out of 132 keepers from Europe’s top seven leagues, Kepa ranks 127th in save percentage.

• Kepa has the worst save percentage in Premier League history (to play 10+ games), with 54.5%. 730th place.
• Kepa has conceded 8% of Chelsea’s Premier League goals since 1992 in 2 years.
• Kepa had 14/47 goals conceded this season, he didn’t move (30%).

This isn’t to backlash against the Spaniard, he is just not good enough to man the stick for the West London club for now.

Perhaps he needs to learn and relearn how to keep and do away with blunders.

A piece of sweet advice to all teams facing Chelsea when Kepa is manning the stick, just shoot.

FAQs

Who is the best goalkeeper in history?

Lev Yashin

Considered by many as the greatest goalkeeper of all time, Lev Yashin, a nine-time European Goalkeeper of the Year, boasts an impressive list of success.

Throughout his career, he secured five Soviet Top League titles, clinched three Soviet Cups, earned an Olympic Gold medal, and added a European Championship trophy to his collection.

Yashin’s remarkable achievements and numerous accolades solidify his standing as a legendary figure in the world of goalkeeping.

Which goalkeeper has conceded the least goals in history?

Pascal Zuberbühler

The former Swiss goalkeeper held the record for the fewest goals conceded by a goalkeeper in a single World Cup tournament.

This achievement was notable during the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Additionally, Zuberbühler set a record by going five successive matches at an international tournament without conceding a goal.

Has a goalkeeper won the Ballon d’Or?

Lev Yashin

Lev Yashin remains the only goalkeeper to have won the Ballon d’Or, receiving the prestigious award in 1963.

His achievement stands as a unique and historic moment in football history, with no goalkeeper having claimed the honor since then.

Which goalkeeper has saved the most penalties?

Samir Handanovic (Inter) – 43 saves

Handanović has proven himself as the best penalty-stopper.

Out of 125 penalty kicks he faced, he saved an impressive 43, achieving the highest ratio among all goalkeepers on the top penalty kick savers list. His outstanding performance means that only 82 goals got past him, giving him a remarkable ratio of 34.4%.

Who was the last goalkeeper to score in the Premier League?

Alisson (Liverpool)

Only six goalkeepers have managed to score a goal in the Premier League competition.

The trend started in 2001 when Peter Schmeichel became the first goalkeeper to achieve this feat. The most recent goalkeeper to score in the Premier League is Alisson, accomplishing this in 2021.

Who is the oldest goalkeeper to play in the Premier League?

John Burridge

The oldest goalkeeper to play in the Premier League is John Burridge.

He played for Manchester City in a match against Queens Park Rangers on May 14, 1995, at the age of 43 years and 162 days.

Who was the first goalkeeper to save a penalty in the Premier League?

Erik Thorstvedt

The first goalkeeper to save a penalty in the Premier League was Erik Thorstvedt.

He achieved this milestone on August 23, 1992, during a match between Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield Wednesday. The Premier League had just started, and Thorstvedt made history by making a penalty save in one of the early matches of the inaugural season.

Which goalkeeper died after saving a penalty?

Arne Espeel

A Belgian goalkeeper, aged 25, tragically passed away after collapsing on the pitch only moments after successfully saving a penalty kick.

At the time, Espeel’s team, Winkel Sport B, was in the lead with a score of 2-1 against Westrozebeke early in the second half. The incident occurred when Westrozebeke was awarded a penalty kick.