Jan Oblak says it was constantly his dream to be a goalkeeper after being named best in the world in the ESPN FC 100. ( 1:35 ) MADRID — On a wet November afternoon at Atletico Madrid ‘s train ground, Jan Oblak wants to set the record straight about some goalkeeping stereotypes. “ We ‘re not crazy, ” he told ESPN, moments after learning that he has been voted No. 1 male goalkeeper in this year ‘s FC 100. “ We ‘re normal people. But we ‘re especial, we ‘re different. I ‘m truly happy I became a goalkeeper. ” Oblak, 28, of Slovenia, is cipher ‘s theme of a goalkeeping maverick. He comes across as civil, reserved, even a piece shy. But “ normal ” does n’t feel justly either. After all, he made his professional debut at 16 and earned his inaugural boastful motion abroad at 17.

“ special ” is more like it. “ different, ” besides. Just ask Atletico fans who have spent the past seven years watching him make one marvelous save after another. indeed, Oblak been so good for so long that, when his class dips, it turns heads. It is the price you pay for consistent, grim excellence. – ESPN+ viewers guide: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, FA Cup, more
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– Don’t have ESPN? Get instant access Ask him about his function models, the players he looked up to as a child, and he does not name-check legends such as Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas, Oliver Kahn or any other high-profile custodian from the 2000s. rather, he talks about his dad, Matjaz. “ My father was a goalkeeper, ” Oblak says. “ He played all his life. Since I was a young son, I was always watching him. Behind his finish, throwing myself, diving to the left, to the right, to the side that he dived. My father helped me a lot. He never pushed me — cipher said ‘you should be a goalkeeper ‘ — but I decided that, credibly because of my don, I wanted to become a goalkeeper like him. ” Oblak ‘s precocious get up to the top would have been dizzying if he was not so healthy. In 2009, he became first-choice custodian for Olimpija Ljubljana, in Slovenia ‘s second tier. After his inaugural wax season, he was signed by portuguese giants Benfica. “ I started fast, ” he tells ESPN. “ I played for the first team at 16 years old … When I left my state, I was one million percentage certain, that was going to be that. One day I was going to be at a top golf club, to play in top competitions, to play great games against the biggest players in the global. ”Jan Oblak has been a major part of Atletico Madrid’s success in recent years. Getty By the age of 20, Oblak was Benfica ‘s No. 1. Six months late, he joined Atletico in a bargain worth €16m, a spanish record for a goalkeeper. But though Oblak was expected to replace Thibaut Courtois, recalled by Chelsea after a three-year loan, veteran Miguel Angel Moya, initially got the nod from coach Diego Simeone at the begin of 2014-15. Oblak was not helped by a black Champions League debut against Olympiakos, in which he conceded three goals from four shots on target and did not play in Europe or LaLiga for six months after that. After such a reverse, he kept his head down and waited for an opportunity. “ talent is not enough to play at a adult clubhouse, ” he says. “ I ‘ve worked all my life sentence, since I was a kid, I was constantly staying after training to go to another aim ( session ) with the older guys … I know that there are a bunch of things that I can do much more. This is a ceaseless fib, you can constantly improve, you can always be better. I think all professionals think like that. ”

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Oblak last played his first LaLiga game in March 2015 and has been Simeone ‘s undisputed first-choice ever since. The numbers from the follow season are jaw-dropping : 38 league games played, 18 goals conceded. And he has since shown that 2015-16 was no one-off. In becoming spanish football ‘s most authentic stopper, he has won the Zamora trophy — awarded for the lowest goals-to-games proportion — a record-equalling five times : Every year from 2016 to 2019, then again in 2021. There have been lows, including a 2016 Champions League final passing to Real Madrid, in which he failed to save a penalty in the decisive gunfight, but many more highs. For exemplar, a triple salvage against Bayer Leverkusen in March 2017, beating away the first fritter before throwing himself to his left and then his right, is the most concise demonstration of goalkeeping enormousness in the contest ‘s recent history .

placid though, it has taken fourth dimension for Oblak ‘s international applaud to match his reputation in Spain. In what feels like a goalkeeping golden age — Alisson and Ederson in the Premier League, Courtois and Marc-Andre ter Stegen in LaLiga, Manuel Neuer in the Bundesliga and Ginaluigi Donnarumma in Serie A and then Ligue 1 — it has not always been easy to stand out. Atletico ‘s LaLiga championship win earlier this year, the clubhouse ‘s first since 2014, helped in that see. “ I think in the last few years [ people ] see the goalkeeper as more crucial than earlier, ” Oblak tells ESPN. “ I think they in truth recognise that all teams immediately, if they want to have good results, they need to have a great goalkeeper. And they are constantly looking for more things, you need to play with your feet, you need to build up … I think it ‘s in truth interest. In the adjacent few years for surely, goalkeepers are going to improve. ”

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He is the goalkeeper with most appearances in Atletico history, but his shrink is due to expire in 2023. In each of the end two summers, the golf club feared a Premier League giant star might be tempted to pay its €120m release article. So what ‘s following ? One thing is clear : At 28, Oblak is however a relative child in goalkeeping years. As such, he laughs off the hypnotism that this year represents a career high. “ last season was capital, [ winning LaLiga ] was perplex, but I know that I need to play like that all the time, ” he says. “ I think in the seasons before I was n’t much worse than last season, but we won the title and that ‘s actually important, specially for individual awards. Like I said, it ‘s a ceaseless report. I hope that this is good the start. This is just the begin of something big, of something great. ”