I just wanted to play football, but I became a Hollywood god

Manchester United's starting goalkeeper is the world-class goalkeeper nicknamed Ice Rabbit and Calm Cat, Edwin van der Sar.

The 40-year-old Van der Sar is 197cm tall and weighs 83kg. Although he is already "elderly", his reactions are still extremely fast.

The position of goalkeeper is indeed one that becomes more and more sophisticated as one gets older.

However, at the age of 40, he can still control the starting goalkeeper position of a wealthy team. Looking at the world, there are probably only two people who can do it. One is the Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, and the other is the Italian teenager Buffon.

Van der Sar is a guard-type goalkeeper.

The so-called goalkeeper type means that he can be both a goalkeeper and a half-back.

Van der Sar's defensive range, reaction speed, and ball-playing ability are definitely world-class.

Moreover, Van der Sar has gone through ups and downs, become stronger over time, and has extremely rich experience on the court.

Like Scholes, Van der Sar has decided to hang up his boots and retire at the end of the 2010-2011 season.

Although this game will not be his last game as the main goalkeeper, for the ardent Manchester United fans, it is indeed one less game to watch.

Similar to the third master Evra and Rio Ferdinand, Van der Sar also had an offensive heart when he was playing football since he was a child.

Van der Sar started out as a forward, but later he grew too fast, so he was transformed into a goalkeeper by the coach of the youth training team.

This was also the starting point for Van der Sar as a goalkeeper.

What I have to say is that Van der Sar's transformation is much luckier than Evra's, and even luckier than Rio Ferdinand's.

Van der Sar's transformation took almost no effort and everything came naturally. In contrast, Evra suffered a bloody head injury, fell into self-doubt, and even almost gave up playing football. Leo... Ferdinand also went through several changes and finally joined the youth training team of West Ham United before starting the painful transformation process.

Although all three of them are now world-class, Van der Sar's luck is obviously better than that of Evra and Rio Ferdinand.

Of course, when he switched from forward to goalkeeper, Van der Sar also had to practice from scratch, and as he practiced, he couldn't help but rush out with the ball and regard himself as a forward.

Before the age of 20, it can be said that Van der Sar was completely unspectacular in the goalkeeper position. If you compare him before the age of 20 with Saint Cassie before the age of 20, Van der Sar is completely incomparable.

However, Van der Sar was very lucky. His youth training team was the star-making factory Ajax, and the coach of Ajax at the time was none other than Louis van Gaal, a chef known for his knowledge of people.

Same surname as Fan...

Well, it’s not Van, but Van Gaal did like Van der Sar.

Moreover, Van Gaal is also famous for promoting young players, and Van der Sar happened to be an energetic young player at that time.

At that time, Van der Sar's biggest competitor was the team's number one goalkeeper Stanley Menzo. Menzo was very good, but in the League Cup final, Menzo made a huge mistake. , this was an even more irritating mistake than Karius' later. Ajax fans couldn't stand such a low-level mistake, so Van Gaal immediately promoted Van der Sar as the main goalkeeper.

Therefore, when he got the opportunity, Van der Sar showed his world-class strength. As a forward, he has very good foot skills. He can not only send precise passes to teammates, but also rush outside the penalty area to calmly handle the ball. With him on the court, Ajax seems to have an extra central defender. As long as Van der Sar does not encounter injuries, he is Van Gaal's first choice at the goalkeeper position.

With the help of Van der Sar, Van Gaal's team not only dominated the Dutch league, but also won the Champions League. Van der Sar rarely makes major mistakes and has saved many wonderful and fatal shots. He can also rush out as a defender and send precise long passes. Moreover, Van der Sar is also good at playing with the opponent's mentality.

Such a guard-type goalkeeper can definitely be called a world-class goalkeeper.

However, as a goalkeeper, Van der Sar has a fatal shortcoming, and that is saving points.

Van der Sar's ability to save points is also notoriously poor. In the World Cup, as long as he can force the Dutch team into a penalty shootout, it is basically equivalent to defeating the Dutch team.

Because of the shortcomings of hitting points, Van der Sar cannot become the "world's best".

However, apart from saving points, Van der Sar is world-class in other aspects.

Van der Sar is also a player who has experienced ups and downs. After he became famous at Ajax, he was spotted by the Serie A giant Juventus, which was known as the Little World Cup at the time. But unfortunately, Van der Sar was In the two seasons when Dessa was the main goalkeeper at Juventus, Juventus not only lost the cup championship, but also the league championship.

As the goalkeeper, Van der Sar naturally became the scapegoat for Juventus.

Later, Juventus broke the goalkeeper transfer record to buy youngster Buffon, and sold Edwin van der Sar to Fulham of the Premier League for 500 million pounds.

At this time, Van der Sar was already 31 years old. Everyone was not optimistic about Van der Sar. They all believed that Van der Sar would stay at Fulham for two years and then hang up his boots and retire.

However, Van der Sar slapped everyone in the face. He played well in the Premier League. With his ability as a goalkeeper, he proved that Juventus was blind.

Four years later, in 4, at the age of 2005, Van der Sar was signed by the wealthy Manchester United, and until he retired at the age of 35 and approaching 40, he firmly occupied the position of Manchester United's starting goalkeeper.

In Ferguson's words, he doesn't feel that Van der Sar is old at all, nor does he feel that Van der Sar's condition is declining. He even feels that Van der Sar can still play at such a high level of competitiveness for another year or two.

Van der Sar chose to quit at the peak of his life. I have to say that this was also a very smart decision.

Van der Sar's most glorious moment at Manchester United was when Manchester United won the Premier League title in 2008 and faced Chelsea in the Champions League finals.

At that time, the two sides were tied at 1:1 in the regular game. There was no goal in overtime, and the two sides entered an exciting penalty shootout.

According to the principle of "a battle with Van der Sar will be lost", Chelsea players have begun to prepare to celebrate.

However, when taking a penalty kick in the fourth round, Chelsea captain Terry slipped when facing Van der Sar and kicked the ball away!

Van der Sar finally relied on Terry's mistake to feel proud in the penalty shootout!

Manchester United also won the Champions League.

In short, apart from his inability to save points, Van der Sar can definitely be regarded as a world-class goalkeeper in other aspects, and he is a world-class goalkeeper with a very long peak period. In terms of peak period, he is second only to the young Buffon.

In today's FA Cup finals, although Manchester United did not field all the main lineup, they at least fielded 80% of the main players. This is important for the players who still have to fight in the Premier League and in the Champions League semi-finals and finals. For the Manchester United team, it is already regarded as a matter of great importance.

beep--

With the whistle of the referee on duty, the FA Cup match officially begins! (End of chapter)