25 Year old Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech has hailed his World Goalkeeper of the Year award as an ‘extra special one.' The Czech Republic international released a statement on the club’s official website:

“Every award is a pleasure. Someone has prized my work all over the year and that is great to know. “There are many great goalkeepers in the game and to be voted the first one by more than 10,000 journalists is a pleasure.  “I think that you would be happy with any kind of award but this one is an extra special one.”

Real Madrid goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek is looking to leave the Spanish side to improve his chances to play for Poland in the Euro 2008 tournament."I've got a three-year contract with Real Madrid but I want to look at the possibility of leaving," the 34-year-old keeper was quoted today."Poland have qualified for the European championship for the first time and I have received an important call from the coach Leo Beenhakker who told me that if I played regularly I would be his keeper at Euro 2008."

"I want to play at the European championship because it will be a historic moment for our country and I haven't played at all in Madrid. I think the best thing now is that we sit down and talk." Dudek came to Madrid from Liverpool this past ceason to become the back-up for Casillas but has yet to play a game for them.

"I would like to leave," Dudek added."If I were 26 I would never leave Real Madrid even if I was second choice, but things have changed with the call from Poland. I'm 34 and they have given me hope of playing in an important tournament. I know I will only have a chance if I play regularly in the next few months. Real have the final word... but I want to be totally honest with them about this."

Goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni has been voted ‘Best Player in Brazil’ for the second consecutive year. The 34 year old Sao Paulo keeper also won the title for  the second year in a row. Ceni allowed only 19 goals this past season and scored 7 goals. Five of those were penalty kicks and two were scored off of free kicks.

“It is a happy moment for me”, the 15 time International said. “It is a great honor to win awards of this magnitude”. Ceni has spent his whole career at Sao Paulo and is the world’s leading goal scorer amongst goalkeepers. Click on his picture below to see some of his best moments.

It will not surprise anyone that has seen him play; crazy simply does not cut it. Gained world fame for his colorful outfits and his famous ‘scorpion kick’. Personal friend of Diego Maradona he was arrested for possession of cocaine and spent time in jail for his part in a kidnappingrelated to a Columbian drug cartel. He even went as far as undergoing cosmetic surgery on live TV. Click on his picture below to see some of the best moments in the career of our Craziest Goalkeeper: Rene Higuita:

Who do you believe is the best goalkeeper in the English Premier League? Is it Cech? Or maybe good ol' van der Sar? How about the amazing Reina? Or maybe one of the British keepers is your favorite....

We all realize that goalkeepers need to be judged by more than shot stopping alone but if we look at the saves to shots ratio we do get an interesting result. Check out the stats below and I guarantee you will be surprised by what the numbers reflect:

KEEPER                            CLUB                                 SAVES        SAVES/SHOTS RATIO

David James                      Portsmouth                            58                    81.7%

Kasper Schmeichel           Manchester City                    22                    81.5%

Petr Cech                            Chelsea                                 33                    80.5%

Robert Green                      West Ham United                 43                    79.6%

Manuel Almunia                  Arsenal                                  30                    79.0%

Scott Carson                       Aston Villa                             37                    78.7%

Joe Hart                               Manchester City                    29                    78.4%

Edwin van der Sar              Manchester United                25                    78.1%

Tony Warner                        Fulham                                   16                    76.2%

Brad Friedel                        Blackburn Rovers                  51                    75.0%

Tim Howard                         Everton                                   39                    75.0%

Jose Manuel Reina             Liverpool                                17                    73.9%

Steve Harper                       Newcastle United                  27                    73.0%

Antti Niemi                           Fulham                                   35                    72.9%

Jussi Jaaskelainen             Bolton Wanderers                 38                    67.9%

Maik Taylor                          Birmingham City                    27                    65.9%

Chris Kirkland                      Wigan Athletic                       41                    64.1%

Paul Robinson                     Tottenham Hotspurs             32                    61.5%

Marcus Hahnemann            Reading                                 48                    60.8%

Craig Gordon                       Sunderland                            43                    59.7%

Stephen Bywater                 Derby County                        48                    59.3%

One of the top goalkeepers of the last era has also always been one of the biggest clowns on the field: French legend Fabien Barthez. Often amazed everyone with near impossible saves then followed by silly (dribbling) mistakes. Produced an instant classic when he reported for his first day of practice with Manchester United at........Liverpool. Made world headlines again when he peed on the field during his team’s UEFA Cup match versus Inter.....while the ball was in play! Click on any of the three pictures below to see some of his great saves, mistakes and my personal favorite is the first clip where Barthez appears to be hailing a taxi....

Amazing athlete from Paraguay that not only became famous for his great saves but also because of his lethal left foot. Scored a total of 62 goals in his professional career, including a hat trick! Also known for his temper, he received suspension for spitting at Roberto Carlos and starting a fist fight with Faustino Asprilla. He spent some time in jail for falsifying club documents. Click on his picture below to see a video some of his greatest moments, including scoring a free kick from 60 yards (!) out!

Arsenal forward Emmanuel Adebayor advises goalkeeper Jens Lehmann to fight for the starting goalie position rather than vent his frustrations throughout the media about spending time on the bench. Adebayor believes Lehmann should just work as hard as possible if he wants to retake his place from Almunia.

"How many more years does he have in the game," Adebayor said. "Maybe two or three years more so he is fighting for his place. He wants to play but at the moment, Almunia is doing a good job and saving a lot of goals. According to the manager, we cannot change Almunia at the moment so Jens should try to be more patient. Lehmann wants to play because he is an international and sitting on the bench could harm his chances with the national team. But I think he just has to still continue fighting for his place because one day he will get his place back. He needs to calm down and just concentrate on working hard."

David James is the first National Team player to openly criticize Steve McLaren after his dubious goalkeeper decisions last week. The 37 year Portsmouth goalie also claims he is determined to fight his way back into the number one position. He said: “Of course I was disappointed at not being picked at Wembley, but the issue is more about the overall system in which our goalkeepers operated.  At the last hurdle we switched goalkeepers and heaped pressure on ourselves. But we needn’t have done."

"Over the past 17 months there were many opportunities to try out a variety of goalkeepers.  Time and again different goalkeepers were brought into the squad – Chris Kirkland and Ben Foster were selected in the early stages, then Scott Carson and Robert Green and finally myself.  But until the Austria game, and other than Paul Robinson, only Ben Foster – in the friendly against Spain – started a match. In the meantime, the No.2 goalkeeper sitting on the bench rotated between five of us. It’s ludicrous.  When I was selected for the England squad, I was over the moon. But I hoped that I would get a chance to show what I could do. Bar one half in a friendly against Germany with little to test me, that didn’t happen. Instead I was told that management knew what I could do and, besides, they wanted to look at younger goalkeepers.

Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill believes Scott Carson will recover soon from his unfortunate competitive debut for England when he played in goal in their crucial qualifier against Croatia. He feels Carson might need a little time to recover psychologically but is confident that he will be fine, and Carson is expected to be the starting goalkeeper when Villa takes on Middlesbrough this week.  

O’Neill said: “I will speak to him. Our goalkeeping coach spoke to him after the game. He will be disappointed. There is no question of that. But he is only 22 and I would be hoping eventually that this is looked at as just one of those things which is part of your career. Peter Shilton made a mistake way back in 1973 against Poland and only turned out to be the best keeper in the world after that. Carson has a long way to go before he is considered like Shilton but he can draw some sort of comfort from the fact what happened to him can happen to the very best. I remember Pat Jennings saying that for two years after signing from Watford for Tottenham he was chucking the ball into the net. He turned out to be one of the greatest keepers that ever lived.” 

O’Neill added: “Of course, Scott will be pretty down and low about it. He will be low because England have failed to qualify and his great save in the second half to keep England in it at 2-1 will be forgotten. That’s the way it goes in this game. His position in goal is so important. Any mistake a keeper makes is highlighted. Psychologically it may take a bit of time to recover from it. I accept that. But he has got time on his side. I am sure Scott is strong enough and will want to play the game (on Saturday). He is especially young for a keeper.” 

Asked how he thinks fans around the country will respond to Carson O’Neill said: “I don’t know what the reaction will be. Whatever I say won’t make a jot of a difference. I would be hoping when the game is analyzed that Carson showed he was able to atone for a mistake in some aspect by making an incredible, instinctive save. But is that what England fans at this minute still despondent from qualifying really want to hear? I am not sure.”