Grab the Goalkeepers Trivia Quiz

Iker Casillas is a Spanish goalkeeper who spent most of his footballing career at Real Madrid. As Spain's Number 1 goalkeeper, he captained them to their first World Cup in 2010 and the European Championship in 2012; along with Italy's Gianluigi Buffon and Germany's Manuel Neuer, he is considered to be one of the best European goalkeepers of the early 21st century. He won the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Award five times in a row, between 2008 and 2021. He also won multiple trophies with Real Madrid, including three Champions' League trophies, but fell out of favour with manager Jose Mourinho, with whom he had a very public feud in 2012.

In 2015, Casillas signed for Porto. While there, he suffered a heart attack in 2019; although he recovered, he retired from football the following year.

Jose Luis Chilavert is a Paraguayan goalkeeper who is famous not only for saving goals, but for scoring them, both outfield and penalties; he scored 36 goals at Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield in Argentina, and four goals each at Sportivo Luqueño in Paraguay and Peñarol in Uruguay. (The only goalkeeper to have scored more goals than him is Brazil's Rogerio Ceni.) He is a three-time winner of the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Award, in 1995, 1997 and 1998. Chilavert captained Paraguay in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, and had a notorious temper; in a game against Colombia in 1997, both he and Faustino Asprilla were sent off for fighting on the pitch, and he was suspended for four games in 2002 for spitting on Roberto Carlos.

After his retirement in 2003, Chilavert became a football commentator. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency of Paraguay in 2023, receiving less than 1% of the vote.

Mark Bosnich is an Australian goalkeeper who played twice for Manchester United, first in the 1990-1991 season (although he had to leave due to difficulties in obtaining a visa) and then from 1999 to 2001 as a replacement for Peter Schmeichel. He also played for Chelsea and Aston Villa in England, and Sydney United, the New South Wales-based Central Coast Mariners and Sydney Olympic in his home country. Both Bosnich's parents are of Croatian descent, and as a child, he played for Sydney Croatia, a team of Croatian-Australians.

In 2002, he temporarily retired from football due to a cocaine addiction, but returned to football in 2007 after training at Queen's Park Rangers' ground. After retiring in 2010, he became a pundit and commentator.

Igor Akinfeev is a Russian goalkeeper who has captained the Russian national team. He has spent the majority of his career at CSKA Moscow, with over 700 appearances; he made his debut for the club aged just 16, saving a penalty against FC Krylia Sovetov Samara and keeping a clean sheet. With one of the highest clean sheet counts in Russia, he is a member of the Lev Yashin Club, an unofficial group of Russian goalkeepers who have over 100 clean sheets (Lev Yashin being the first Russian goalie to do this).

In 2018, Akinfeev became the first Russian goalkeeper to have 300 clean sheets. He retired from international football in the same year.

Eiji Kawashima is a Japanese goalkeeper. He started out at Omiya Ardija in his native Saitama Prefecture, before moving to Nagoya Grampus Eight in 2004. As well as his homeland, he has also played for in Belgium for the now defunct Lierse and Standard Liège, in Scotland for Dundee United, and in France for Strasbourg and Metz.

While at Lierse, he stopped playing during a game against Germinal Beerschot because of Beerschot fans singing 'Kawashima, Fukushima' in reference to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Kawashima did not see the funny side of it and later received an apology from the club.

He was Japan's Number 1 goalkeeper at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 World Cups, before announcing his retirement from international football in 2022.

Yassine Bounou, nicknamed 'Bono', is a Canadian-born Moroccan goalkeeper. A fan of Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, Bounou started out as an outfield player but was advised to play in goal due to his height. He made headlines at the 2022 World Cup as Morocco's Number 1 keeper when he made two saves during a penalty shoot-out against Spain. Morocco, under Walid Regragui, became the first African team to reach the semi-finals in World Cup history, after reaching the quarter finals for the first time in their history and beating Portugal 1-0. In 2023, Bounou won the Confederation of African Football award for best African goalkeeper.

Bounou spent most of his playing career in Spain, at Atletico Madrid, Girona and Sevilla (where he won the Europa League in 2020 and 2023), before signing for Saudi club Al-Hilal in 2023. He was awarded the Zamora Trophy for the 2021-2022 season.

Ederson Moraes, or Ederson for short, is a Brazilian goalkeeper. He and fellow Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker, have a friendly rivalry due to playing for Manchester City and Liverpool respectively; Ederson signed for City from Benfica in 2017. At the time, he was the second most expensive goalkeeper of all time, signed for £35 million; only Gianluigi Buffon was more expensive.

He has won multiple trophies with Manchester City and won the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Award in 2023, after City made history by doing the treble and winning the Champions' League for the first time. Like his compatriot Roberto Firmino, he is covered in tattoos, including a rose and skull on his neck.

Petr Čech is a Czech goalkeeper. After starting out at the now defunct Chmel Bisany and Sparta Prague in his homeland, he moved to Rennes in 2002 and from there to Chelsea, where he spent most of his footballing career, in 2004. Čech set a record number of clean sheets for Chelsea (228) and the Premier League in general (202) and, during Chelsea's glory days of the '00s and '10s, won four FA Cups, four titles and the Champions' League in 2012. While playing against Reading in 2006, his skull was fractured and he had to wear a helmet in order to play; the helmet became his trademark. He was voted the IFFHS Best Goalkeeper in 2005. In 2015, he signed for rivals Arsenal.

Besides football, Čech is also an ice hockey enthusiast (he originally wanted to be an ice hockey goalkeeper, but his family couldn't afford the equipment) and, on retiring from football in 2019, he signed for Guildford Phoenix, his local ice hockey team. He also plays the drums and has uploaded several drumming videos on his Instagram and YouTube channel.

Jacques Songo'o is a Cameroonian goalkeeper turned goalkeeping coach, and considered to be one of the greatest African goalkeepers of all time; he was voted Best African Goalkeeper in 1996 while playing for Metz in France. He spent most of his career in France and Spain, where he played twice for both Metz and Deportivo La Coruña; while at Deportivo, he won the 1996-1997 Ricardo Zamora Trophy, a Spanish award for the best goalkeeper of the season (won by two other goalkeepers in this quiz). Songo'o was picked for Cameroon in every World Cup appearance between 1990 and 2002, although he was only the Number 1 keeper for the 1998 World Cup.

He retired in 2004 and became the Cameroon national team's goalkeeping coach.

Kasper Schmeichel is a Danish goalkeeper. He is the son of the legendary Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, and grew up with Alex Bruce and Tom Ince, the sons of his dad's team mates Steve Bruce and Paul Ince (there is footage of the kids playing football together, and it is adorable!) Originally starting out at Manchester City, Schmeichel had various loan spells before moving to Notts County, Leeds United and Leicester City; it was there that he won the title under Claudio Ranieri in 2016.

In doing so, he and his father became the first father and son duo to have both won the Premier League. He also captained Leicester to victory in the 2021 FA Cup final, their first FA Cup win in their history. Schmeichel joined Nice in 2022, but left for Anderlecht a year later.