With Gianluigi Buffon retiring on Saturday, Goal takes a look at where the Italian icon ranks among the best ever, in terms of longevity and legacy
10Iker Casillas
A prodigious talent with wonderful reflexes, Iker Casillas broke into the Real Madrid starting line-up at 18 years of age. He had only just turned 19 when he helped Los Blancos win the 2000 Champions League final.
The Spaniard would go on to become a regular for both club and country for over a decade, becoming the captain of the greatest international side the game has ever seen, which helped him win the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award for five successive years between 2008 and 2012
Casillas led La Roja to two European Championships and one World Cup and although his time at Madrid ended on a rather sour note, his place in the history books had long since been secured.
Advertisement9Peter Shilton
When it comes to longevity, no top goalkeeper can compare with Peter Shilton, who spent just over three decades in between the sticks. Indeed, he was still England's first-choice goalkeeper at Italia '90, even though he was 40 at the time.
At the peak of his powers, Shilton was a truly exceptional shot-stopper, the last line of defence in the Nottingham Forest side that won back-to-back European Cups, in 1979 and 1980.
Shilton remained at the peak of his profession though the 1980s, though, and only called time on his incredible career in 1997, some 31 years after he'd broke into the Leicester City team.
Getty Images8Edwin van der Sar
Despite his height (6'5''/1.97m), Edwin van der Sar was one of the first of a new breed of goalkeepers who were excellent with the ball at their feet.
The Dutchman was a part of the wonderful Ajax team that won the Champions League in 1995 and although a subsequent switch to Juventus did not work out well, he resurrected his career at Fulham before then moving to Manchester United, with whom he tasted further Champions League glory, in 2008.
Indeed, it was Van der Sar who decided the final in the Red Devils' favour by stopping Nicolas Anelka's penalty in the shootout, after making several crucial saves in open play that deservedly earned him the man of the match award. He would then go on to become the oldest player to win the Premier League, at the age of 40, in 2011.
Getty Images7Manuel Neuer
While Manuel Neuer may not have invented the role of 'sweeper-keeper', he is arguably its greatest exponent.
With his wonderful exploits for both Bayern Munich and Germany, Neuer has completely changed the entire perception of shot-stopper by essentially serving as an extra man in defence and a key distributor of the ball from the back.
Indeed, whereas once goalkeepers were overlooked when it came to individual accolades, Neuer is now widely lauded for inspiring a new generation of goalkeepers, as underlined by the fact that he finished third in the 2014 Ballon d'Or voting after winning the World Cup in Brazil.