Edwin van der Sar – one of the best

In amongst all the deserved superlatives flying around for the wonderful performance of Barcelona on Saturday evening, it has almost gone unnoticed that one of the finest keepers of his generation and any other, made his last ever appearance in that game.

Disappointed

Edwin van der Sar was hugely disappointed to bow out with such a comprehensive defeat and with the second goal looking suspiciously like one he should have saved, but he can look back on a glorious career with his head held high.

“I played one game too many I think, it is not nice to lose of course. It is not always a given, I thank everyone for the memories. They had the better chances and we made one or two mistakes and they punish you. They are very good, you have to try and score the first goal and we didn’t do that.”

As for Messi’s goal, Van der Sar refused to accept that he was at fault.

“I thought I was positioned well. He tends to curl it into the far post but he didn’t.”

Legend

I think he was at fault, but for a legend of the game I’m prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt!

Edwin van der Sar now goes into retirement aged forty and can look back on a wonderful career that has seen him play at the very top of the game in Holland, Italy and England. He has played a remarkable eight hundred and nineteen club games as well as a record one hundred and thirty internationals.

Giant

A look at what the six feet five inch giant has won in the game will show you that he is one of the best ever.

In his twenty year career he has helped his teams to win twenty-six trophies. At Ajax, amongst other cup wins, he won four Eridivisie titles and the Champions League. He then won UEFA Intertoto cups with Juventus and Fulham before winning, amongst other things, four Premier League titles and a Champions League with Manchester United.

He was the goalkeeper for Holland at four European Championships and two World Cups. He holds the record for playing more minutes of football at the European Championships than any other player.

Best

Van der Sar has been named best European goalkeeper on four occasions and has twice been voted as the best European club goalkeeper by UEFA. Three times, his fellow professionals have picked him as the best goalkeeper in the Premier League.

He also holds a number of records. He is the oldest player to ever play in a Champions League final and also the oldest player to win a Premier League title. The period of one thousand three hundred and eleven minutes he went without conceding a goal in the 2008-09 Premier League season is a World record and he was the first goalkeeper to keep fifty clean sheets in the Champions League.

All in all, that is an astonishing career and he will be sorely missed in the game.