UK Edition
Petr Cech is the Premier League's all-time best goalkeeper, and here's why
Petr Cech will retire at the end of the season and should be recognised as the Premier League’s best-ever goalkeeper, and certainly one of its best men.
The bald facts of his record brook no argument: 486 appearances for Chelsea, their club record for an overseas player. Four Premier League Titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups, a Europa League and, his finest hour, the 2012 Champions League, in which he saved a penalty from Arjen Robben in extra time, and then stopped Ivica Olic’s effort in the shootout. He is his country’s most capped player, and holds a variety of keeping records.
He reached the top at a young age for a keeper, brought to Chelsea in 2004-2005, quickly supplanting Carlo Cudicini as first choice after the Italian got injured. Here’s Jose Mourinho on that signing:
“I am honoured to have been the manager that, at such an early age, gave Petr a top Premier League No 1 shirt.”
For any young egomaniacs watching at home, that is how you make a big moment in someone else’s life all about you.
Anyhow, what a career. Cech’s Premier League record has not been one of De Gea-like, gravity-defying miracles, but instead of relentless excellence and reliability. Tall, agile, strong, brave, quick reactions, always well positioned, mentally tough: he had no weakness as a traditional keeper.
At Arsenal, where he was encouraged to be a more modern, distributing keeper he looked less assured, but as an old-fashioned No 1 he has been as good as it gets.
He sustained a depressed skull fracture against Reading in 2006 and played thereafter in a distinctive rugby-style scrum cap.
Some felt that he was never quite the same after that, a little more cautious perhaps, and perhaps more likely to be rattled by an opposing centre-forward. On the other hand, he showed heart, bravery and character to come back from a horrible, life-threatening collision.
He achieved the unlikely feat of being a Mourinho-era Chelsea player that everybody liked: honest, self-deprecating, committed.
When Chelsea brought in Thibaut Courtois, Cech took it on the chin and competed for his place, but when it became obvious that Chelsea were pinning their colours to that Belgian mast, he left in good grace.
In that peculiar, unwritten set of sentencing guidelines that all fans carry inside them on the matter of a departing player, there were only mitigating factors in Cech’s decision to go and play for a London rival, and no aggravating. He has been cherished by Arsenal fans as well.
Aside from having an intriguing first-name with its tantalising missing ‘E’, Cech is blessed not only with a surname that is a treat for puns, he actually has the same last name as the country he comes from. This sort of thing pretty much guarantees you favourable coverage in the press and the media, and it is not easy to find anyone with a bad word to say about the guy.
Peter Schmeichel, with his disappointingly vanilla first-name spelling, is his major rival for sustained brilliance but Cech did not have the advantage of playing for Manchester United when Alex Ferguson ruled the Premier League with an iron rod. Cech began as a challenger, became a champion, and leaves the stage at or near his best: a nice guy, a pro, a great. Surely all fans will wish him well when he hangs up his boots, and his little hat, at the end of this season.