2026 World Cup Goalkeepers: The Complete X-Ray of All 48 Starters
Updated on 07/05/2026 — analysis expanded to all 48 starting goalkeepers from every squad at the 2026 World Cup, based on FIFA's official "Goal Prevention" reports (PMSR) from every group-stage and round-of-32 match, cross-referenced with real xG for each game.
Raw Save% has always been a misleading metric: a keeper playing behind a strong defense who only faces long-range efforts gets an artificially high SV%; one who's bombarded with difficult shots can post a low SV% while making incredible saves. Using FIFA's official reports — which classify every shot faced as either "genuinely needed a save" or "didn't require action" — we built a fairer metric: Quality%, the share of genuinely dangerous shots the keeper handled well.
⚠️ Methodological note: Sergio Rochet (Uruguay) was excluded from the main analysis — he only came on at the 45' mark of a single match (2nd half vs. Spain, replacing Fernando Muslera, sent off after a costly error). Since FIFA's data is per full match, there was no way to separate Muslera's numbers from Rochet's. In this expansion we also identified and handled separately other mid-tournament goalkeeper changes (Norway, Tunisia, USA, Uzbekistan) — in each case we only used the primary starter's complete matches, excluding mixed games or a backup's brief appearance.
📊 Full table — 48 starting goalkeepers
| # | Goalkeeper | Team | Matches | GA | Raw SV% | Shots faced (FIFA) | % easy shots | Quality% | GA/90 | Team xGA | Perf. vs xGA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Mpasi | COD | 4 | 5 | 23% | 49 | 63.3% | 88.9% | 1.25 | 1.00 | -0.25 |
| 2 | Maxime Crepeau | CAN | 5 | 6 | 22% | 22 | 63.6% | 87.5% | 1.20 | 0.70 | -0.50 |
| 3 | Gregor Kobel | SUI | 4 | 3 | 33% | 33 | 54.5% | 86.7% | 0.75 | 0.79 | +0.04 |
| 4 | Mike Maignan | FRA | 5 | 2 | 24% | 28 | 53.6% | 76.9% | 0.40 | 0.81 | +0.41 |
| 5 | Zion Suzuki | JPN | 4 | 5 | 32% | 44 | 45.5% | 75.0% | 1.25 | 0.83 | -0.42 |
| 6 | Alisson | BRA | 4 | 2 | 30% | 40 | 60.0% | 75.0% | 0.50 | 0.64 | +0.14 |
| 7 | Diogo Costa | POR | 4 | 2 | 26% | 54 | 63.0% | 75.0% | 0.50 | 1.00 | +0.50 |
| 8 | Unai Simon | ESP | 4 | 0 | 75% | 21 | 61.9% | 75.0% | 0.00 | 0.18 | +0.18 |
| 9 | Alireza Beiranvand | IRN | 3 | 3 | 24% | 52 | 57.7% | 72.7% | 1.00 | 1.29 | +0.29 |
| 10 | Luca Zidane | ALG | 3 | 6 | 25% | 39 | 53.8% | 72.2% | 2.00 | 1.23 | -0.77 |
| 11 | Vozinha | CPV | 4 | 5 | 27% | 75 | 66.7% | 72.0% | 1.15 | 1.89 | +0.74 |
| 12 | Ronwen Williams | RSA | 4 | 4 | 22% | 51 | 58.8% | 71.4% | 1.00 | 1.30 | +0.30 |
| 13 | Emiliano Martínez | ARG | 4 | 3 | 40% | 34 | 79.4% | 71.4% | 0.75 | 0.63 | -0.12 |
| 14 | Thibaut Courtois | BEL | 4 | 4 | 69% | 48 | 64.6% | 70.6% | 1.00 | 0.90 | -0.10 |
| 15 | Matt Freese | USA | 3 | 1 | 67% | 25 | 60.0% | 70.0% | 0.33 | 0.37 | +0.04 |
| 16 | Yassine Bounou | MAR | 5 | 4 | 24% | 35 | 62.9% | 69.2% | 0.75 | 0.68 | -0.07 |
| 17 | Mohammed Al-Owais | KSA | 3 | 5 | 84% | 65 | 60.0% | 69.2% | 1.67 | 2.02 | +0.35 |
| 18 | Mahmoud Abunada | QAT | 3 | 10 | 62% | 79 | 63.3% | 69.0% | 3.33 | 2.60 | -0.73 |
| 19 | Kim Seung-gyu | KOR | 3 | 3 | 75% | 28 | 42.9% | 68.8% | 1.00 | 0.62 | -0.38 |
| 20 | Eloy Room | CUW | 3 | 9 | 30% | 63 | 50.8% | 67.7% | 3.00 | 2.62 | -0.38 |
| 21 | Orlando Gill | PAR | 5 | 6 | 22% | 85 | 57.6% | 66.7% | 1.12 | 1.49 | +0.37 |
| 22 | Matej Kovar | CZE | 3 | 6 | 61% | 44 | 59.1% | 66.7% | 2.00 | 1.74 | -0.26 |
| 23 | Raul Rangel | MEX | 4 | 0 | 100% | 32 | 71.9% | 66.7% | 0.00 | 0.47 | +0.47 |
| 24 | Bart Verbruggen | NED | 4 | 5 | 31% | 48 | 41.7% | 64.3% | 1.15 | 0.93 | -0.22 |
| 25 | Yazeed Abulaila | JOR | 3 | 8 | 44% | 41 | 65.9% | 64.3% | 2.67 | 2.17 | -0.50 |
| 26 | Orlando Mosquera | PAN | 3 | 4 | 72% | 30 | 53.3% | 64.3% | 1.33 | 1.14 | -0.19 |
| 27 | Lawrence Ati Zigi | GHA | 2 | 1 | 35% | 58 | 56.9% | 64.0% | 0.67 | 1.21 | +0.54 |
| 28 | Manuel Neuer | GER | 4 | 5 | 50% | 31 | 58.1% | 61.5% | 1.25 | 0.89 | -0.36 |
| 29 | Patrick Beach | AUS | 4 | 3 | 24% | 65 | 64.6% | 60.9% | 0.69 | 1.19 | +0.50 |
| 30 | Edouard Mendy | SEN | 2 | 6 | 38% | 50 | 50.0% | 60.0% | 3.53 | 1.27 | -2.26 |
| 31 | Johny Placide | HAI | 3 | 8 | 28% | 41 | 46.3% | 59.1% | 2.67 | 1.48 | -1.19 |
| 32 | Jordan Pickford | ENG | 4 | 3 | 52% | 32 | 56.3% | 57.1% | 0.75 | 0.63 | -0.12 |
| 33 | Ugurcan Cakir | TUR | 3 | 5 | 57% | 34 | 58.8% | 57.1% | 1.67 | 1.04 | -0.63 |
| 34 | Fernando Muslera | URU | 2 | 3 | 58% | 19 | 63.2% | 57.1% | 1.50 | 0.80 | -0.70 |
| 35 | Jacob Widell Zetterstrom | SWE | 2 | 4 | 33% | 51 | 43.1% | 55.2% | 2.00 | 1.68 | -0.32 |
| 36 | Yahia Fofana | CIV | 4 | 4 | 22% | 51 | 60.8% | 55.0% | 1.00 | 1.70 | +0.70 |
| 37 | Dominik Livakovic | CRO | 4 | 7 | 22% | 52 | 57.7% | 54.5% | 1.75 | 1.67 | -0.08 |
| 38 | Aymen Dahmen | TUN | 2 | 7 | 46% | 32 | 65.6% | 54.5% | 3.50 | 1.58 | -1.92 |
| 39 | Mostafa Shoubir | EGY | 4 | 4 | 87% | 58 | 67.2% | 52.6% | 1.00 | 1.19 | +0.19 |
| 40 | Nikola Vasilj | BIH | 4 | 8 | 44% | 43 | 51.2% | 52.4% | 2.00 | 1.33 | -0.67 |
| 41 | Hernan Galindez | ECU | 4 | 4 | 69% | 53 | 56.6% | 52.2% | 1.00 | 1.28 | +0.28 |
| 42 | Jalal Hassan | IRQ | 2 | 8 | 25% | 61 | 63.9% | 50.0% | 5.33 | 2.47 | -2.86 |
| 43 | Angus Gunn | SCO | 3 | 4 | 71% | 48 | 62.5% | 50.0% | 1.33 | 1.76 | +0.43 |
| 44 | Alexander Schlager | AUT | 4 | 9 | 21% | 59 | 47.5% | 48.4% | 2.25 | 1.69 | -0.56 |
| 45 | Max Crocombe | NZL | 3 | 10 | 52% | 71 | 63.4% | 46.2% | 3.33 | 2.65 | -0.68 |
| 46 | Camilo Vargas | COL | 4 | 1 | 62% | 37 | 67.6% | 41.7% | 0.25 | 0.69 | +0.44 |
| 47 | Orjan Nyland | NOR | 3 | 4 | 43% | 41 | 56.1% | 38.9% | 1.33 | 1.56 | +0.23 |
| 48 | Abduvohid Nematov | UZB | 2 | 8 | 38% | 37 | 54.1% | 35.3% | 4.00 | 2.07 | -1.93 |
GA, Raw SV% and Shots faced cover the complete matches of each squad's starting goalkeeper (group stage + round of 32, where applicable). Team xGA is the real average xG faced per match (source: official FIFA reports). Raw SV% is the simple average of the "Save %" published by FIFA per match — reminder: this metric tends to hit 100% whenever the team doesn't concede in that match, so it shouldn't be confused with Quality%, which weighs by the real difficulty of each shot.
📈 Quality% ranking — all 48
The chart below ranks all 48 starters by the share of genuinely dangerous shots they handled well (green = 75%+, yellow = 60-75%, red = below 60%).
⚖️ Who's outperforming expectations? — all 48
Crossing Quality% with the real xG faced by each squad shows who's genuinely compensating for a defense exposed to quality chances — and who's being carried by a solid defense. Green bars = the keeper conceded fewer goals than expected given the risk level the team allows; red = conceded more than expected.
Vozinha (Cape Verde) remains on top (+0.74) even with the sample expanded to 48 teams — he faces the 2nd-highest real xGA in the whole World Cup (1.89/game) and still concedes little. Right behind are Yahia Fofana (Ivory Coast, +0.70) and the expansion's surprise: Camilo Vargas (Colombia, +0.44) and Orjan Nyland (Norway, +0.23) — despite middling Quality%, they play behind more exposed defenses than average and still hold the scoreline. At the bottom, Abduvohid Nematov (Uzbekistan, -1.93) and Aymen Dahmen (Tunisia, -1.92) join Jalal Hassan (Iraq, -2.86) and Edouard Mendy (Senegal, -2.26) as the most deficit-ridden cases.
🥅 Shot maps — outcome distribution
Important notice: FIFA doesn't provide exact coordinates of where each shot was taken, so these are not real shot-location maps — they're a visual representation of how many shots fell into each outcome category (saved and retained, deflected, etc.), distributed illustratively inside and around the goal to convey volume. Selection: the top 5 in Quality% from the original sample.
Notice how Lionel Mpasi (DR Congo) has a large concentration of "saved and cleared danger" shots — he doesn't just hold onto the ball, he frequently resolves the immediate threat too. Diogo Costa, meanwhile, has the highest total volume of shots faced (54) among the five, making his 75% Quality% even more respectable.
✈️ Aerial dominance — who owns the air
Note: this section and the next (Distribution) cover the 24 goalkeepers from the analysis's first batch — they haven't been recalculated for all 48 yet.
Using FIFA's official "Aerial Control" data (punches, claims, and catches), we calculated the aerial intervention rate: of all crosses faced, in how many did the keeper actually come off his line to intervene.
Maxime Crepeau (Canada) leads by a wide margin (30.4% of crosses faced turned into an intervention of his), followed by Edouard Mendy (Senegal, 25.0%). At the other end, Mike Maignan (France) had zero aerial interventions across 41 crosses faced during the whole World Cup.
🎯 Distribution: short passing and line breaks
The modern goalkeeper isn't just about saving — it's also about starting plays. Using the "In Possession — Individual Data" section of the official reports (tabulated data, not a radial chart), we checked pass accuracy and line-break rate match by match for three specific goalkeepers.
| Goalkeeper | Match | Pass completion % | Line breaks % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alisson | vs Haiti (M29) | 28/34 (82%) | 3/8 (38%) |
| Alisson | vs Scotland (M49) | 21/23 (91%) | 3/5 (60%) |
| Alisson | vs Japan (M76) | 18/25 (72%) | 2/8 (25%) |
| Diogo Costa | vs DR Congo (M23) | 28/34 (82%) | 5/9 (56%) |
| Diogo Costa | vs Colombia (M71) | 19/23 (83%) | 3/6 (50%) |
| Gregor Kobel | vs Algeria (M85) | 32/45 (71%) | 7/19 (37%) |
Alisson was excellent with the ball at his feet against Haiti (82% passing, 38% line breaks) and even better against Scotland (91% passing, 60% line breaks) — but dipped considerably in the round of 32 against Japan: passing stayed solid (72%), but the line-break rate dropped to 25% (don't confuse the two: it was the line breaks that dipped, not the passing itself). Diogo Costa keeps similar numbers across both matches analyzed, the most consistent of the three. Gregor Kobel stands out for volume: against Algeria he attempted 19 line breaks, completing 7 (37%) — a more proactive build-up style.
😬 The World Cup's biggest blunders — when the mistake becomes a goal
Not everything at a World Cup is spectacular saves. The 2026 edition is registering an unusual number of individual errors that turned into goals — according to BBC Sport, there were 52 errors leading to shots in the group stage's first round alone, surpassing the 42 errors across the entire 2022 World Cup (64 matches). The BBC points to some hypotheses: physical wear from long European seasons, heat at several stadiums, and even a theory from former keeper Joe Hart that the official ball "arrives faster than expected." Some specific, verified cases:
- Fernando Muslera (Uruguay): the tournament's worst individual case. He erred in all three group-stage matches and was substituted at halftime against Spain (the first non-forced goalkeeper substitution at a World Cup since 2014) — the first keeper since 1966 to commit 3 goal-leading errors in a single edition.
- Ronwen Williams (South Africa): in the opener against Mexico, a short pass of his to midfielder Sithole was intercepted near his own box, paving the way for Julián Quiñones's goal.
- Kim Seung-gyu (South Korea): came out to claim a cross against Mexico, collided with his own defender, and spilled the ball at Luis Romo's feet — a play officially classified in FIFA's report as "Loose Ball."
- Aymen Dahmen / Mouhib Chamakh (Tunisia): the squad committed 6 errors in total against Sweden, 4 of them directly leading to a goal in the 5-1 rout.
- Yazeed Abulaila (Jordan): tried to "guess" the side of a Messi free kick and watched the ball go in almost through the center of the goal — instantly became a meme.
The BBC also cites Edouard Mendy (Senegal) and Luca Zidane (Algeria) among the keepers with slow reactions on early-tournament goals conceded — two names that already show up near the bottom of our Perf. vs xGA ranking, a nice cross-validation of our own numbers.
And the heroic counterpoint: Eloy Room (Curaçao) did the opposite of a blunder — 15 saves in a single match (0-0 against Ecuador), a regulation-time World Cup record, helping Curaçao become the smallest country by population ever to earn a point at the tournament.
📋 Key takeaways
- Top 3 in pure Quality% (among the 48): Lionel Mpasi (88.9%), Maxime Crepeau (87.5%), and Gregor Kobel (86.7%).
- Best balance vs. real xG, with the expanded sample: Vozinha (Cape Verde, +0.74) remains in front, followed by Yahia Fofana (Ivory Coast, +0.70) and Lawrence Ati Zigi (Ghana, +0.54).
- Biggest collective disappointments: Iraq (-2.86), Senegal (-2.26), Uzbekistan (-1.93), and Tunisia (-1.92) — the defense in front of the keeper is suffering far more than it should.
- "Big" teams in the middle of the pack: Spain (Unai Simón, 75.0% Quality%) is the best of the traditional favorites; Germany (Manuel Neuer) and Argentina (Emiliano Martínez) sit in the middle tier; Colombia (Camilo Vargas, 41.7%) and Norway (Orjan Nyland, 38.9%) surprise on the downside in pure Quality%, even if they partly compensate on the xG balance.
- The other side of the coin: Muslera (Uruguay) was the tournament's worst individual case so far, with 3 goal-leading errors — a negative record dating back to 1966.
Standout performances and decisive moments
Beyond the aggregate numbers, a handful of individual matches deserve their own spotlight — portraits of goalkeepers carrying their team through a specific 90 minutes.
The technical verdict: Diogo Costa and Mostafa Shoubir
The “Goal Prevention” analysis shows technical consistency isn’t confined to the marquee squads — it shows up in individual top-tier performances:
- Diogo Costa (Portugal) faced 26 shots against Colombia (0-0, group stage) and closed it out with a 100% save rate — one of the highest combined volume-and-efficiency performances of the entire tournament.
- Mostafa Shoubir (Egypt), in the draw against Belgium, stopped 17 shots with 100% effectiveness, neutralizing the Belgian attack without conceding dangerous rebounds.
Alisson’s real dip (Brazil)
Against Japan, Alisson faced just 2 shots on target and conceded 1 goal, closing the match at 50% save rate — his worst isolated mark of the competition. One important correction here: the dip wasn’t in his overall passing (he closed that match at 72% overall completion, 18 of 25) — it was specifically in his riskiest line-breaking passes, where he connected on just 2 of 8 attempts (25%) — quite different from the 82% overall completion against Haiti. In other words: Alisson didn’t “break” on the simple pass, he just had an off night trying the difficult one. He still stayed active defensively, though: 6 possession regains against Scotland show he remains a safety valve even away from the goal line.
Aerial dominance: Qatar’s edge in the box
Qatar’s goalkeeper is the tournament’s most proactive in the air: against Switzerland, he made 8 aerial interventions, 6 of them punches to clear danger — unusually aggressive command of his box. In sheer volume, Qatar also tops the charts: 35 shots faced against Canada, albeit with a low success rate (44%) given the lopsided scoreline.
Resilience ranking (shot volume faced)
| Goalkeeper (Team) | Match | Shots faced | Save rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orlando Gill (PAR) | vs Turkey | 34 | 100% |
| Vozinha (CPV) | vs Spain | 28 | 100% |
| Diogo Costa (POR) | vs Colombia | 26 | 100% |
| Mostafa Shoubir (EGY) | vs Belgium | 17 | 100% |
| Alisson (BRA) | vs Haiti | 7 | 100% |
Costly mistakes
Not everyone was a wall: Uruguay (vs Saudi Arabia) closed at just 67% save rate, and Sweden (vs Netherlands) posted one of the tournament’s worst marks, with only 29% effectiveness on goal interventions.
The closer: Walls of Volume vs. Architects of the Game
If we had to pick two archetypes to symbolize this World Cup’s goalkeeping styles, they’d be these:
The Walls of Volume — Vozinha (Cape Verde) and Orlando Gill (Paraguay) — play under constant pressure and try to break lines all game long: 20+ attempts per 90 minutes, nearly double the tournament average. Vozinha still lands 54.3% success on those risky plays; Gill sacrifices precision (37.1%) for volume — a sign of a team forcing the ball forward out of necessity, even knowing it’ll cough up possession often.
The Architects of the Game — and here the numbers gave us an interesting twist. Diogo Costa is indeed a model of efficiency: few line breaks (6.5/90), but with 80.2% overall pass completion — he simply doesn’t need to force it, because Portugal dominates possession. But the keeper who truly earns the “Architect” title with the numbers in hand is Unai Simón: the lowest risk volume among keepers with 3+ complete matches (8.0 line breaks/90) combined with the best overall pass completion rate of the entire World Cup (92.5%). Simón isn’t the flashiest goalkeeper, but he’s the one who errs least — the perfect definition of an architect who builds without fanfare.
The lesson the numbers leave us with: high distribution volume isn’t a synonym for quality, and low volume isn’t a synonym for fear. It’s playing style — and each of these goalkeepers carries his team on his back in his own way.
Data extracted and validated from all 88 official FIFA Post Match Summary Reports for the 2026 World Cup.
Methodology: data extracted from FIFA's official PMSR (Post-Match Statistical Review) reports for the 2026 World Cup, covering the group stage and round of 32, for the 48 starting goalkeepers of the 48 squads. Quality% = (Saved & Retained + Deflected & Retained + Saved & Cleared) ÷ (Total shots faced − shots that didn't require action). Team xGA is the real xG of each match summed only across the complete matches of the starter identified via the official lineup. Aerial dominance and distribution (specific sections) still only cover the 24 goalkeepers from the analysis's first batch. Error/blunder data cross-checked against BBC Sport reporting and other outlets. Data subject to updates as more matches are played.
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