2026 World Cup Goalkeepers: A Complete Overview of All 48 Starters
Updated on 07/05/2026 — analysis extended to all 48 starting goalkeepers of all 2026 World Cup teams, based on official FIFA "Goal Prevention" (PMSR) reports from all group stage and Round of 16 matches, cross-referenced with the actual xG for each match.
Raw Save% has always been a treacherous metric: a goalkeeper playing behind a strong defense and only facing long-range shots will have an artificially high SV%; one who endures a barrage of difficult shots may have a low SV% even while making incredible saves. Using official FIFA reports — which classify every shot faced as either "required a real save" or "did not require action" — we constructed a fairer metric: Quality%, the proportion of genuinely dangerous shots that the goalkeeper handled well.
⚠️ Methodological note: Sergio Rochet (Uruguay) was excluded from the main analysis — he only played 45 minutes in a single match (2nd half vs. Spain, replacing Fernando Muslera, who was sent off due to criticism after a mistake). As FIFA data is for full matches, Muslera's and Rochet's contributions could not be separated. In this extended analysis, we also identified and treated separately other goalkeeper changes mid-World Cup (Norway, Tunisia, USA, Uzbekistan) — in each case, we only used full matches played by the main starter, excluding mixed matches or those with a substitute playing limited minutes.
📊 Complete table — 48 starting goalkeepers
| # | Goalkeeper | Team | Matches | GC | Raw SV% | Shots Faced (FIFA) | % Easy Shots | Quality% | GC/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 |
GC, Raw SV%, and Shots Faced cover the full matches played by each team's starting goalkeeper (group stage + Round of 16, where applicable). Team xGA is the average actual xG conceded per match (source: official FIFA reports). Raw SV% is the simple average of the "Save %" published by FIFA per match — reminder: this metric often shows 100% whenever the team doesn't concede a goal in that match, so it shouldn't be confused with Quality%, which weights according to the actual difficulty of each shot.
📈 Quality% Ranking — All 48 Goalkeepers
The chart below ranks the 48 starting goalkeepers by the proportion of genuinely dangerous shots they handled well (green = 75%+, yellow = 60-75%, red = below 60%).
⚖️ Who is keeping the team above expectations? — All 48 Goalkeepers
By cross-referencing Quality% with the actual xG conceded by each team, we can see who truly compensates for a defense exposed to quality chances — and who is being supported by a solid defense. Green bars = the goalkeeper conceded fewer goals than expected based on the risk level allowed by the team; red = conceded more than expected.
Vozinha (Cape Verde) remains at the top (+0.74) even with the sample expanded to 48 teams — he faces the 2nd highest actual xGA of the entire World Cup (1.89/game) and still concedes few goals. Just behind him are Yahia Fofana (Ivory Coast, +0.70) and the surprise of the expansion: Camilo Vargas (Colombia, +0.44) and Orjan Nyland (Norway, +0.23) — despite having a medium Quality%, they play behind defenses more exposed than average and still maintain the score. At the bottom of the table, 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 deficient cases.
🥅 Shot maps — outcome distribution
Important note: FIFA does not provide exact coordinates of where each shot occurred, so these are not real shot position maps — they are a visual representation of how many shots fell into each outcome category (saved and held, deflected, etc.), illustratively distributed within and around the goal to give an idea of volume. Selection: the top 5 in Quality% from the original sample.
Notice how Lionel Mpasi (DR Congo) has a high concentration of "saved and cleared danger" shots — he not only holds the ball, but frequently resolves immediate danger. Diogo Costa, on the other hand, has the highest total volume of shots faced (54) among the five, which makes his 75% Quality% even more respectable.
✈️ Aerial dominance — who rules the air
Note: this section and the next (Distribution) cover the 24 goalkeepers from the first round of analysis — they have not yet been recalculated for all 48.
Using official FIFA "Aerial Control" data (punches, claims, and saves with hands), we calculated the aerial intervention rate: out of all crosses faced, how many did the goalkeeper actually leave the goal to intervene on.
Maxime Crepeau (Canada) leads comfortably (30.4% of crosses faced resulted in his intervention), followed by Edouard Mendy (Senegal, 25.0%). At the other end, Mike Maignan (France) had zero aerial interventions from 41 crosses faced throughout the World Cup.
🎯 Distribution: short pass and broken lines
The modern goalkeeper is not only one who saves — he is also one who initiates plays. Using the "In Possession — Individual Data" section of the official reports (tabulated data, not radial graph), we reviewed pass accuracy and broken lines rate for three specific goalkeepers match by match.
| Goalkeeper | Match | Completed passes % | Broken lines % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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% passes, 38% broken lines) and even better against Scotland (91% passes, 60% broken lines) — but dropped significantly in the round of 16 against Japan: passes remained solid (72%), but the broken lines rate dropped to 25% (not to be confused: what dropped were broken lines, not the pass itself). Diogo Costa maintains similar numbers in the two analyzed matches, the most consistent of the three. Gregor Kobel stands out for volume: against Algeria he attempted 19 broken lines, completing 7 (37%) — a more proactive style in build-up play.
😬 The biggest mistakes of the World Cup — when failure becomes a goal
Not everything in a World Cup is spectacular saves. The 2026 edition is recording an unusual number of individual errors that led to goals — according to BBC Sport, there were 52 errors that led to shots in just the 1st matchday of the group stage, surpassing the 42 errors of the entire 2022 World Cup (64 matches). The BBC points to hypotheses: physical fatigue from long European seasons, heat in several stadiums, and even a theory from former goalkeeper Joe Hart that the official ball "arrives faster than expected." Some specific, verified cases:
- Fernando Muslera (Uruguay): the worst individual case of the tournament. Failed in all three group stage matches and was substituted at halftime against Spain (the first unforced goalkeeper substitution in a World Cup since 2014) — first goalkeeper since 1966 to commit 3 errors leading to goals in a single edition.
- Ronwen Williams (South Africa): in the opener against Mexico, a short pass from him to midfielder Sithole was intercepted near his own area, paving the way for Julián Quiñones' goal.
- Kim Seung-gyu (South Korea): came out to claim a cross against Mexico, collided with his own defender and left the ball at Luis Romo's feet — play officially classified in the FIFA report as "Loose Ball."
- Aymen Dahmen / Mouhib Chamakh (Tunisia): the national team committed 6 errors in total against Sweden, 4 of them directly leading to goals in the 5-1 thrashing.
- Yazeed Abulaila (Jordan): tried to "guess" the side of a Messi free-kick and saw the ball go in almost through the center of the goal — instantly became a meme.
The BBC also mentions Edouard Mendy (Senegal) and Luca Zidane (Algeria) among the goalkeepers with slow reactions to conceded goals at the start of the tournament — two names that already appear in the worst positions of our Performance vs. xGA ranking, a good cross-validation of our own numbers.
And the heroic counterpart: Eloy Room (Curaçao) did the opposite of a blunder — 15 saves in a single match (0-0 against Ecuador), a record in regular time of a World Cup, helping Curaçao become the smallest country by population to score in the tournament's history.
📋 Key conclusions
- Top 3 in pure Quality% (among the 48): Lionel Mpasi (88.9%), Maxime Crepeau (87.5%), and Gregor Kobel (86.7%).
- Best balance vs. actual xG, with the expanded sample: Vozinha (Cape Verde, +0.74) still leads, 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 around the goalkeeper suffers much more than it should.
- "Big" teams in the middle of the table: Spain (Unai Simón, 75.0% Quality%) is the best of the traditional favorites; Germany (Manuel Neuer) and Argentina (Emiliano Martínez) are in the middle third; Colombia (Camilo Vargas, 41.7%) and Norway (Orjan Nyland, 38.9%) surprise on the bad side in pure Quality%, although they partially compensate in the balance vs. xG.
- The other side of the coin: Muslera (Uruguay) was the worst individual case of the World Cup so far, with 3 errors leading to goals — a negative record since 1966.
Great performances and decisive moments
Beyond aggregate numbers, some isolated matches deserve to be highlighted on their own — they are a portrait of goalkeepers carrying their team for 90 specific minutes.
The technical verdict: Diogo Costa and Mostafa Shoubir
The “Goal Prevention” analysis shows that technical consistency appears not only in standout national teams, but in specific, high-level individual performances:
- Diogo Costa (Portugal) faced 26 shots against Colombia (0-0, group stage) and finished with 100% effectiveness — one of the highest volume and effectiveness combined 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 (Brazil) real fluctuation
Against Japan, Alisson faced only 2 shots on target and conceded 1 goal, ending the match with 50% effectiveness — his worst isolated mark in the competition. An important correction is needed here: the drop was not in general pass distribution (he finished that match with 72% overall accuracy, 18 of 25), but specifically in the riskier broken lines, where he completed only 2 out of 8 attempts (25%) — quite different from the 82% overall accuracy against Haiti. That is: Alisson did not "break down" in simple passing, he just had a bad night attempting the difficult pass. Even so, he remained active in defensive coverage: 6 possession recoveries against Scotland show that he continues to be a security element even outside the goal.
Area dominance: Qatar's aerial differential
Qatar's goalkeeper is the most proactive in the tournament in aerial play: against Switzerland, he made 8 aerial interventions, of which 6 were punches to clear danger — an uncommon aggressiveness in goalkeeper clearances. In pure volume, Qatar also leads: 35 shots faced against Canada, although with a low performance (44%) due to the large score.
Resilience ranking (shot volume)
| 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 errors
It wasn't all brick walls: Uruguay (vs Saudi Arabia) finished with only a 67% save rate, and Sweden (vs Netherlands) recorded one of the worst marks of the tournament, with only 29% effectiveness in goal interventions.
Conclusion: Volume Walls vs. Game Architects
If we had to choose two archetypes to symbolize the goalkeeping styles of this World Cup, they would be these:
Volume Walls — Vozinha (Cape Verde) and Orlando Gill (Paraguay) — play under constant pressure and try to break lines all the time: 20+ attempts per 90 minutes, almost double the tournament average. Vozinha still achieves 54.3% accuracy in these risky plays; Gill sacrifices precision (37.1%) for volume, a sign of a team that forces the ball forward, even knowing that possession will be lost frequently.
Game Architects — and here the data gave us an interesting twist. Diogo Costa is, in fact, an example of efficiency: few broken lines (6.5/90), but with an 80.2% overall pass accuracy — he simply doesn't need to force it, because Portugal dominates possession. But the one who truly earns the title of "Architect" with the numbers in hand is Unai Simón: the lowest risk volume among goalkeepers with 3+ complete matches (8.0 broken lines/90) combined with the best overall pass accuracy rate in the entire World Cup (92.5%). Simón is not the flashiest goalkeeper, but he is the one who makes the fewest mistakes — the perfect definition of an architect who builds without fuss.
The lesson from the numbers: high distribution volume is not synonymous with quality, and low volume is not synonymous with fear. It's a playing style — and each of these goalkeepers carries their team in their own way.
Data extracted and validated from FIFA's 88 official Post Match Summary Reports for the 2026 World Cup.
Methodology: data extracted from official FIFA PMSR (Post-Match Statistical Review) reports for the 2026 World Cup, covering the group stage and round of 16, for the 48 starting goalkeepers of the 48 national teams. Quality% = (Saved and Held + Deflected and Held + Saved and Cleared) ÷ (Total shots faced - shots that did not require action). The xGA per team is the actual xG for each match summed only in the full matches of the identified starter via official lineup. Aerial dominance and distribution (specific sections) still cover only the 24 goalkeepers from the first batch of analysis. Error/blunder data cross-referenced with BBC Sport reports and Spanish-language media. Data subject to updates as more matches are played.
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