In an earlier feature on the leading goalkeepers of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL), we had highlighted how Indian goalkeepers were running neck to neck with their more celebrated foreign counterparts for the tournament’s Golden Glove award.

In all, a dozen plus goalkeepers representing the eight teams have featured in the competition so far, some fleetingly though. With two rounds more to go for the group stage of the ISL to conclude, Jan Šeda (FC Goa) is leading the race for the prestigious Golden Glove, which is primarily based on the Minutes per Goal Conceded criterion followed by Total Saves and Total Clean Sheets.

And the stats justify his exalted position in the hierarchy. Šeda concedes just once in every 123 minutes, as compared to Subhasish Roy Chowdhury (Atlético de Kolkata) and Kerala Blasters FC’s David James who concede once in every 102 minutes. Šeda also obviously has the best Goals Allowed Average of 0.73 in the tournament thus far.

The Czech shot stopper also shares the best save percentage (shots on goal faced against saves made) of 81.81% with gangling 6’10” Delhi Dynamos FC goalkeeper Kristof Van Hout. The Belgian custodian however tops the charts in terms of having made the most saves – 54, a little bit ahead of the ‘Indian Spiderman’ Subrata Paul (Mumbai City FC) who has made 47 saves. 

For the purpose of this piece, we will have to ignore the contributions and records of excellent goalkeepers like Greek international Alexandros Tzorvas (NorthEast United) and Armenian international Apoula Edel Bete (Atlético de Kolkata) who have played too few games to merit attention.

Kolkata’s Chowdhury incidentally has conceded the least number of goals in the tournament (7), though he has played in only eight matches while the other leading contenders have played between 10-12. Šeda and Arindam Bhattacharya (FC Pune City) have conceded eight each. And surprisingly, even though India No 1 Paul has conceded the most number of goals (19), he has also kept the most clean sheets (6), as compared to five each for Šeda and former England goalie James.

So, as you can see, different goalkeepers are excelling in different departments of the game, making the goal-rich ISL a paradise for goal saving goalkeepers. The stats may change as the tournament winds down but the leading protagonists are going to be more or less the same.