Two of the five nominees for The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper 2021 have won the award before: Brazil’s Alisson Becker and Germany’s Manuel Neuer. We assess the contenders and look at what they have done to get this far.

The Liverpool goalkeeper’s contributions to their Premier League and UEFA Champions League campaigns last season earned him a place in the FIFA FIFPRO Men’s World XI for the second time in his career. He was also instrumental in Brazil reaching the final of the Copa America and qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ with six matches to spare.

Did you know? Alisson is the sixth goalkeeper to win 50 caps for Brazil.

Donnarumma played a big part in Italy’s triumph at UEFA EURO 2020, keeping clean sheets in all three of their group matches and excelling in the penalty shootouts that decided the semi-final against Spain and the final against England. He was rewarded for his efforts with the award for Player of the Tournament, the first time it had gone to a goalkeeper. Did you know? In his final season with AC Milan before joining Paris Saint-Germain, Donnarumma conceded the joint-third fewest goals in Serie A, helping his team take second place, their highest finish since 2011/12.

Such was Mendy’s contribution to Chelsea’s Champions League win last season that he was named the tournament’s Goalkeeper of the Season. He has also been vital to Senegal’s run to the final round of the African qualifying competition for Qatar 2022. Did you know? Mendy kept a clean sheet in nine of the 12 Champions League games he played last season, equalling the competition record held by Santiago Canizares (2000/01) and Keylor Navas (2015/16).

In helping Bayern Munich win the Bundesliga last season, The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper of 2020 set a new all-time competition record for clean sheets. He reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League with his club and the Round of 16 of EURO 2020 with Germany, and also helped his country become the first European nation to qualify for Qatar 2022.

Did you know? Neuer was between the posts for six of Germany’s ten qualifying matches for next year’s world finals, ending on the winning side in each of them without conceding a goal. This year has also seen him become the first Germany goalkeeper to win 100 caps.

Schmeichel has been a standout performer for Denmark over the last year. Not content with making a telling contribution to their run to the semi-finals at EURO 2020, he also kept a clean sheet in eight of this country’s ten matches in the preliminaries for Qatar 2022, helping the Danes to become the second European nation to qualify for the finals. For good measure, Schmeichel also won the FA Cup with Leicester City. Did you know? Schmeichel made 18 saves at EURO 2020, the joint-second highest in the tournament, behind Switzerland’s Yann Sommer on 21.