Safe hands: Top 5 goalkeepers with the most clean sheets in Champions League history

The ongoing 2024-25 season has seen a major reformatting of the Champions League. Long known as the most prestigious competition in Europe, the Champions League was founded under its current name in 1992, supplanting the pre-existing European Cup. After a few years of operation, the Champions League started to utilize the group stages for which it became known.

Four teams would be placed into a group that two would advance into the knockout stages from, with the other two sides dropping out of the competition. For this campaign, though, the group stages have been scrapped and in their place, the Champions League now uses a league table format.

The new table means that more teams are involved in the competition and each side now plays eight games instead of six in the first stage. The Champions League, in any format, is a competition with a rich history. As part of that history, it bears asking, who are the five best goalkeepers, by clean sheets kept, to have turned out in the Champions League?

5. Petr Cech

After making his senior debut within football in his native Czech Republic, Petr Cech started to make a name for himself on the continent with Stade Rennais, with whom he played for two years after joining them in 2002. Though his team struggled, Cech certainly did not and his form led to Chelsea making a bid for him in 2004.

Cech would spend over a decade with Chelsea, establishing himself as one of the greatest goalkeepers to ever grace the Premier League. He won four Premier League titles with the Blues, alongside seven domestic cup honors. Cech was also a key reason for Chelsea’s consistent Champions League qualification.

In Europe for the West London side, Cech made 94 appearances, a large chunk of the 111 games he played in the Champions League for Sparta Prague, Chelsea and Arsenal, who he spent four years with after joining in 2015. A one-time Champions League winner, Cech kept 49 clean sheets in his 111 matches, the fifth-most of any shot-stopper in history.

4. Edwin van der Sar

Netherlands legend Edwin van der Sar began his career with Ajax in 1990 and would spend close to a decade in the Dutch capital, being a key part of the club’s golden generation that lifted the Champions League in 1995. He brought an end to his stay with Ajax in 1999 when he moved to Juventus, but van der Sar would only spend two seasons in Turin, making just six Champions League appearances in that time.

A shock move to newly-promoted Premier League side Fulham followed in 2001, where van der Sar spent the next five seasons of his career. Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United moved to sign him in 2006, despite van der Sar being in his mid 30s. The Dutch international would spend five further years at Old Trafford before retiring and his move to the club saw a return to Champions League football.

With the Red Devils, in 2008, van der Sar won the second Champions League title of his career, 13 years after his first. All in all, the shot-stopper played in 98 matches in Europe’s most prestigious competition, keeping 51 clean sheets in that time, a ratio of over 50%.

3. Gianluigi Buffon

It was only in 2023 that Gianluigi Buffon called time on his illustrious career, having played professional football for almost three decades. Buffon made his senior debut for boyhood club Parma in 1995. He soon became the starter in a brilliant period of Parma’s history, helping the club reach the Champions League as a teenager.

Buffon moved to Juventus in 2001 for what was then a world record fee for a goalkeeper and would spend the next 17 years in Turin, winning nine Serie A titles and even a Serie B title, with Buffon having stayed with Juve after their enforced relegation as a result of the Calciopoli scandal.

A season in France followed his time at Juventus, but after just a year with Paris Saint-Germain, Buffon returned to Juve, this time as second choice, before moving to Parma in 2021, returning to his boyhood club after two decades away. Across his career, Buffon made 124 appearances in the Champions League and his 53 clean sheets is the third-best return of any shot-stopper in the competition’s history.

2. Iker Casillas

Known affectionately as “San (or Saint) Iker,” Iker Casillas spent over two decades playing professional football, debuting for Real Madrid in 1999 after progressing through their youth system and feeder teams. It did not take long for Casillas to make his mark in Europe, becoming the youngest-ever goalkeeper to play in and win a Champions League final in 1999.

Though there were slightly tricky periods in his career, that can do little to take away from the overall legacy that Casillas left behind. He won three Champions Leagues in his 16-year tenure with Real, along with two Copa del Rey trophies and five La Liga titles. He departed the club in 2015, going on to spend five years with Porto before retiring in 2020.

All in all, Casillas played in 177 games in the Champions League, the most of any goalkeeper in the competition’s history. 27 of those games were with Porto, the other 150 being with Madrid. In those matches, Casillas’ tally of 29 clean sheets is the second-most ever, with the Spaniard being just one of two goalkeepers to ever have more than 55 Champions League clean sheets.

1. Manuel Neuer

It was with Schalke 04 that Manuel Neuer first experienced all the competitions that he still currently plays in. Debuting in 2005, Neuer spent six years in his hometown of Gelsenkirchen and won the DFB-Pokal with Schalke, who appointed him as club captain in 2010. It was also with Schalke that Neuer first experienced both the Bundesliga and the Champions League.

In 2011, Bayern Munich moved to sign Neuer, then in his mid-20s. At the time of writing, Neuer remains with the club and is still their first-choice goalkeeper, despite being nearly 40 years old. Neuer, who was ranked as the best goalkeeper of the last decade by IFFHS, has won two Champions League trophies with the Bavarians.

Throughout his career, Neuer has played in 145 Champions League matches. The bulk, of course, have been with Bayern, with just 22 of those games having been with Schalke. In those appearances, Neuer has kept 61 clean sheets with a clean sheet percentage of just over 42 percent. Not only is he the leading clean sheet keeper in the competition’s history, but he is so far the only goalkeeper to have recorded over 60 Champions League clean sheets.