Sportskeeda Football Awards 2016: Goalkeeper of the Year

#2 Keylor Navas (Reader’s Rank: 3 | Sportskeeda’s Rank: 2 | Average Score: 8.5)

Keylor Navas was pivotal for Real Madrid as they won the UEFA Champions League

Keylor Navas was out #1 pick for Goalkeeper of 2015/16 and while the Costa Rican has relinquished his crown, he remains one of the best in the game. Surprisingly, Navas is still criminally under-rated by television pundits, despite being the backbone of a Real Madrid side that won the UEFA Champions League this season.

Our readership doesn’t seem to think along those lines, with 15% voting for him and Navas was looked at favourably by us at Sportskeeda as well. With a staggering 103 saves in a calendar year, Navas goes against the grain of custodians of top sides averaging 70-80 saves in a year. Thus he has one of the best saves-per-goal ratio of 2.86, a figure which would have been better had Real Madrid’s defence not gone AWOL multiple times this year.

I’m going to go out on a limb and make a rather tall claim: Real Madrid’s unbeaten run would not have existed without Keylor Navas in goal. Los Blancos’ defence has been exceptionally leaky in 2016, but Navas is often at hand to bail out his side, although there are limits to how often he can perform his magic.

The proof of the pudding? – a side of Real Madrid’s monetary talents hasn’t been linked with a top keeper. Keylor Navas is here to stay.

Keylor Navas : 2016 Calendar Stats
Appearances	40
Clean Sheets	13
Goal Conceded	36
Saves	103
Saves per Goal	2.86
Penalties Conceded/Saved	3/1
Distribution Success Rate	75%