Football’s very best Lionel Messi has acknowledged in the past that he has witnessed the best goalkeeping performance he has ever witnessed.
A number of times over the course of his career, the Argentine legend Lionel Messi has been referred to as one of the greatest players who have ever graced a football pitch.
The 37-year-old player has scored a total of 752 goals across 928 matches across all competitions. He has played for teams such as Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, and Inter Miami, in addition to other teams.
For Argentina, Messi has been capped 213 times on the international stage, and he has scored 128 goals during his time with the national team.
During his illustrious career, the eight-time winner of the Ballon d’Or has faced off against some of the best goalkeepers from around the world, including the likes of Iker Casillas, Gianluigi Buffon, and Alisson Becker, amongst others.
Messi, on the other hand, was particularly impressed by the performance of one English participant.
A former custodian for Celtic, Fraser Forster, left an impression on Lionel Messi during the Scottish club’s historic victory over Barcelona by a score of 2-1 in 2012.
It was reported by the Daily Star that Messi made the following statement: “The performances of Fraser Forster against us were talked about for a long time.”
“There was one game in Scotland where he was not human, it is the best goalkeeping performance I have seen.”
He went on to say, “When Victor Valdes announced that he was leaving, we even discussed the possibility of him playing here.” That he would end up playing for Arsenal, Chelsea, or Manchester United was a certainty to me.
The goal that Messi scored past Forster in the 90th minute was a consolation strike, and the 36-year-old custodian was given the nickname ‘The Great Wall of Glasgow’ after making seven saves.
It was in 2014 when he made the move from Celtic to Southampton, where he went on to play 162 times before making a brief return to the Bhoys in the 2019/20 season.
Forster has been selected for England six times, and he joined Spurs in 2022. Since then, he has participated in 34 matches across all competitions.
On December 6, 2023, Forster signed a new contract with Spurs that will keep him with the club until the summer of 2025. This new deal will keep him at Spurs until then.
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