(Football news) Thibaut Courtois at the Ballon d'Or ceremony yesterday was awarded the Yashin trophy for being the best goalkeeper of the season. The award was richly deserved as Courtois was extremely important for Real Madrid last season. Madrid won the La Liga, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Spanish Super Cup last season and Courtois put in some incredible performances. The Belgian shot stopper won the Man of the Match award in the Champions League final against Liverpool as he made 9 saves which was a record for most saves by any goalkeeper in a UCL final. 

Courtois was always going to be the favourite to win the trophy. The part which was very surprising is that he finished 7th in the Ballon d'Or rankings. There was a strong argument that Courtois should've been in the top 3 as he has been among the best players in the world last season. The shot stopper himself said that he deserved a higher ranking. He also said "Winning the Ballon d'Or? I was the goalkeeper who won the UCL and La Liga, and didn't even get on the podium. So no, impossible. There's nothing more I can do." Iker Casillas also expressed his surprise that Courtois finished only 7th. Kylian Mbappe, Mohamed Salah, Robert Lewandowski, Kevin De Bruyne and Sadio Mane all finished higher. 

Vinicius Jr who had a breakthrough season with Real Madrid finished 8th which was lower than expected. The rankings are not a surprise because the contribution of goalkeepers is not rated highly, especially while talking about individual awards. To this day Russia's Lev Yashin remains the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d'Or which was way back in 1963. Manuel Neuer was the last goalkeeper to make it to the podium back in 2015. Courtois finishing only 7th shows that it is going to be a long time before a goalkeeper wins the Ballon d'Or.

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