Iker Casillas Biography

Iker Casillas was born on 20^th may 1981 in Madrid. He is currently the Goal Keeper for Real Madrid and the Spanish National Football team. His excellent skills in the game have made him the Captain of the football team of Spain and he also shares the post of Vice Captain of the Real Madrid football Club. He started his career when he just 8 years if age and has been loyal to his home club ever since. He started playing for the Real Madrid Youth in the year 1990-1991 and then shifted to the senior club in the ear 1998-1999 as a replacement to Bodo Illgner.

He then moved on to playing for Madrid’s UEFA Champion’s League and made a mark in football by being the youngest ever player to have come so far and having played in the Champions League. He showed his excellent skills by beating Valencia by a huge margin of 3-0. However Casillas’ performance was short lived and soon he was substituted by Cesar Sanchez. The real test of game play came when Sanchez was injured during a game against Bayer Leverkusen and all eyes were on Casillas to save the day. His splendid performance led Madrid to a 2-1 win and also made Casillas the number one goalkeeper of Real Madrid.

His loyalty towards the cub has brought him numerous benefits. He has received a lifetime contract with the club which expires on 2017. However this can be further extended if he plays at least 30 matches in his final season. Casillas is a prized possession of Madrid and is also included with the legends of this club including Alfredo Di Stefano, Raul Gonzalez Blanco and Puskas.

His international career is equally impressive. He made it to the national Spanish football team at a young age of 16. However he managed to impress one and all with his excellent goal keeping and even led The Spain youth team to winning the UEFA CAF Meridian Cup and the FIFA Youth World Championship.

He was the first choice goal keeper for the 2002 World Cup and played an amazing tournament for Spain. His performance just kept getting better by the day and he just conceded four goals in all the eight Group 6 Matches that were played in the Euro 2004 qualifier round. He had a number of clean sheet records with a number of matches in the Euro 2004 qualifiers which made the most sought after goal keeper.

Casillas acquired the captaincy for Spain when Raul retired from the Euro 2008 squad and he gave a commendable performance as the new captain. He went on to keep 42 clean sheets out of the 82 appearances he made which was a big achievement in itself.  He became the first goal keeper captain to lift the UEFA Championship trophy on June 2008 and his goal keeping skills have been a great asset for the fan fare. One of the goals that he saved against South Korea in the FIFA World Cup 2002 has gone down to the record books as the top 10 saves in football.