Iker Casillas

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Iker Casillas
Personal information
Full name Iker Casillas Fernández
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team
 Real Madrid
Number 1
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of June 14, 2008

Iker Casillas Fernández (born May 20, 1981 in Móstoles, Madrid) is a Spanish football goalkeeper. He is currently the first choice goalkeeper for Real Madrid and the Spanish national team. He is the captain of the Spanish national team, as well as one of the vice-captains of Real Madrid.

Real Madrid

He was a product of Real Madrid's youth system, and started in the junior squad during the 1990-91 season, but it wasn't until 1998-99 that he debuted in the senior side, replacing Bodo Illgner, and he was in Real's starting lineup the next season. In 2000, he became the youngest-ever goalkeeper to ever play in a Champions League final when Real Madrid defeated Valencia C.F. 3-0 four days after his nineteenth birthday. He is also one of the vice captains in the team and has grown to be a club icon. He has been constantly nicknamed 'Saint Iker' for his seemingly miraculous saves.

Casillas lost his spot to backup Cesar Sanchez after a patch of bad form during the 2001-02 campaign, but Sanchez suffered an injury in the last minutes of Madrid's 2-1 2002 Champions League final victory over Bayer Leverkusen and was replaced by Casillas, who earned back the starting shirt the next season and has maintained it since. In February 2008, he signed a contract extension that will keep him at the club until 2017, with an automatic extension if he plays 30 competitive matches during the final season of the contract.[1][2]

National team

Casillas was a member of the Spanish teams which won the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup and FIFA World Youth Championship in 1999. Following his full international debut against Sweden, Casillas was an unused substitute at Euro 2000.

  • Debut Spanish Selection: Sweden 1 - Spain 1 3 June 2000
  • Official debut Spanish Selection: Bosnia 1 - Spain 2 2 September 2000

Casillas is currently the second-most capped goalkeeper in the history of the Spanish national team, behind Andoni Zubizarreta, who appeared in 126 matches for Spain during his career.[3]

2002 World Cup

He was selected to the Spanish National Team and ended up being the first choice goalkeeper at the 2002 FIFA World Cup held in South Korea and Japan later that year. Because of his performance, Casillas enjoyed hero status after Spain knocked out the Republic of Ireland in a penalty shoot-out to advance to the quarter-finals. After the FIFA World Cup and his performances against the Republic of Ireland and South Korea, he emerged as the first choice keeper for the national team.

Euro 2004

Casillas played in all eight Group 6 fixtures during Euro 2004 qualifying, conceding just four goals. He then kept goal in both legs of the play-off victory against Norway, keeping a clean sheet in Oslo. He then played as his country's goalkeeper at the Euro 2004 finals.

2006 World Cup

Casillas was his country's first-choice goalkeeper during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Spain was beaten by France 3-1 which marked the end of the 2006 campaign. During the tournament, he captained Spain twice. He is the current captain of Spain.

Euro 2008

He was the first choice goalkeeper at Euro 2008, starting all Spain's games.

Honors and awards

Domestic
Continental
International

Statistics

as of May 27, 2008: Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1999-00||rowspan="9"|Real Madrid||rowspan="9"|La Liga||29||0||5||0||12||0||46||0 |- |2000-01||34||0||0||0||11||0||45||0 |- |2001-02||25||0||5||0||9||0||39||0 |- |2002-03||38||0||0||0||15||0||53||0 |- |2003-04||37||0||2||0||9||0||48||0 |- |2004-05||37||0||0||0||10||0||47||0 |- |2005-06||37||0||4||0||7||0||48||0 |- |2006-07||38||0||0||0||7||0||45||0 |- |2007-08||36||0||0||0||8||0||44||0 Template:Football player statistics 3311||0||16||0||88||0||415||0 Template:Football player statistics 5311||0||16||0||88||0||415||0 |}

National Team Performance
Team Year Friendlies World Cup European Cup Total
App Conceded App Conceded App Conceded App Conceded
Spain 2008 2 0 0 0 4 2 6 2
Spain 2007 1 0 0 0 7 3 8 3
Spain 2006 4 3 3 4 3 5 10 12
Spain 2005 1 0 9 4 0 0 10 4
Spain 2004 6 3 3 1 3 2 12 6
Spain 2003 3 1 0 0 8 5 11 6
Spain 2002 4 1 5 5 2 0 11 6
Spain 2001 3 2 2 0 0 0 5 2
Spain 2000 3 3 3 2 0 0 6 5
Total 27 13 25 16 23 15 79 46

References

  1. ^ Sky Sports - Casillas and Raul commit to Real
  2. ^ "Raúl and Casillas sign lifelong contracts with Real Madrid". Realmadrid.com. 2008-02-14. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
  3. ^ Source: http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/capitan-casillas-todo-empezo-suecia/dasftb/20061007dasdaiftb_25/Tes?print=1

External links

Preceded by Spain captain
2008- 		Succeeded by
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