On Sunday, after winning back the title of the Spanish champions, the goalkeeper of the "Barcelona" team, Claudio Bravo, will also have a new personal trophy in his collection.
The 32-year-old Chilean officially became the best goalkeeper in "La Liga", so he will be awarded the Ricardo Zamora trophy.
The winner of the prize is determined at the end of each Spanish championship season based on the overall coefficient, which is calculated by dividing the goals conceded by the number of matches played. However, only goalkeepers who have played in at least 75 percent of "La Liga" matches per year are included in the official count.
C. Bravo defended the "Barcelona" goal in all 37 matches this season, conceding just 19 goals, so the Chilean's R. Zamora coefficient is 0.51.
In second place is the goalkeeper of "Valencia", Diego Alves, who played 36 matches this season and conceded 27 goals. His coefficient is 0.75.
In third place is Sergio Asenjo, who defended the "Villarreal" goal in 34 matches of the Spanish championship and conceded 31 goals. His coefficient is 0.91.
After the 37th round, due to the mentioned 75 percent rule of matches played, the goalkeeper of Madrid's "Atletico", Miguel Angel Moya, who was previously third, dropped out of the Ricardo Zamora ranking. The Spaniard defended his team's goal in 27 matches, conceding a total of 23 goals (0.85), but an injury prevented him from playing the necessary number of "La Liga" matches.
CLAUDIO BRAVO!
When C. Bravo arrived at "Barcelona" in the summer of 2014, he faced a tough task - to replace the veteran goalkeeper Victor Valdes, a five-time winner of the Ricardo Zamora trophy, who left the team.
Barcelona did not spare 12 million euros on the former goalkeepers of "Colo-Colo" and San Sebastián's "Real Sociedad", and it seems they did not make a mistake.
3,300 minutes - that's how much time the "Barcelona" newcomer spent at the team's goal this season in "La Liga" and only conceded 19 goals.
Furthermore, C. Bravo's career in Catalonia is already marked with several records. Since the start of the national championship, the Chilean kept the goal "dry" for a total of 754 minutes, breaking the record set by Pedro Maria Artola in the 1977-1978 season. He successfully defended his goal for the first 560 minutes of the competition.
Even in 23 of the 37 Spanish championship matches, C. Bravo was unbeatable. This is the all-time record of "La Liga".
"He didn't need any adaptation in the new team. C. Bravo just stood in front of the goal and did his job as well as he knows. Calm, self-confident, able to organize the defense, not afraid to lead it, and cold-blooded in critical situations," - this is how the analysts in Spain described the Chilean.
Until now, C. Bravo's best performance in the elite league of the country was in his debut season, 2006-2007, when he moved from "Colo-Colo" to Europe and joined the goalkeepers of San Sebastián's "Real Sociedad". Then he conceded an average of 1.04 goals per match.
However, C. Bravo still won one Ricardo Zamora trophy. This happened in the 2008-2009 season when the Basque club played in the second division of the country. That year, the Chilean shared the award with the then goalkeeper of Madrid's "Rayo Vallecano", David Cobeno - both of them conceded an average of 0.88 goals per match.
HISTORICAL STATISTICS
Although the best goalkeepers of the Spanish championship have been selected since the first season in 1928-1929, the Ricardo Zamora award has been presented since 1950.
The Barcelona club goalkeepers have won this prize 20 times, Real Madrid 16 times, Valencia 9 times, Deportivo La Coruña 8 times, and Atletico Madrid 7 times.
Some of the record holders in the personal count of the Ricardo Zamora award are also the goalkeepers of Barcelona. Andoni Ramallets and Victor Valdes have each received the award 5 times.
Deportivo goalkeepers Jose Acuna and the legendary Valencia and Spanish national team goalkeeper Santiago Canizare are also recognized as the best 4 times.
