This season, Thibault Courtois' market value has decreased by almost 15 million euros. Fellow goalkeepers, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen and Jan Oblak are in a very different situation. The German goalkeeper is worth the highest he has ever been in his whole career and the Slovenian continues to shine. Some rise, others fall.
To play in goal for the best clubs in the world is not easy. These three keepers face the dask on a daily basis. Some do better than others and we are curious to see how this influences their respective market values.
In 'ProFootballDB', BeSoccer's statistical laboratory, we have been analysing how these prices have been fluctuating depending on the performance of each goalkeeper. The worst off is the Belgian, whose valuation has gone from 66.5 to 52 million.
This is the direct consequence of the insecurity that has been showing lately in the Real Madrid goal. While it is true that the team are leaders of La Liga, their performances in the Champions League have not been the best and the goalkeeper has been one of the ones to blame. When he signed for Madrid as the best goalkeeper in the world, he had reached his highest market price.
Far away seems to be that time when he shone with Chelsea, Belgium and Atletico Madrid, who when Thibaut left found a replacement of many guarantees: Oblak. The keeper is bordering on being one of their best purchases to date, costing around 52 million euros.
"Oblak is paradise" is the phrase that many people think of when the goalkeeper is mentioned. It is how the journalist Rubén Martín narrates his great interventions to save his squad on more than one occasion. The fans are more than happy with him.
In fact, another fact that is brought to our attention is that, before signing for Cholo Simeone's team, he wasn't really valued over 6 million euros. This means his value has risen to over 45 million in hardly even a year. But it took 16 to get him out of Benfica.
_
But Ter Stegen is the best-placed player in the 'ProFootballDB' statistics. He is at the peak of his market value: the campaign started at 44.5 and is now at 50 million. The arguments are being given on the green: he is the undisputed number 1 with Barça and already threatens Neuer to the number '1' spot in Germany.
When he arrived in Barcelona, his value was 26.3, which is almost twice as high now. At 27-years-old, it seems that leads with Oblak a rivalry that began recently between the goalkeepers of the three best - or at least most successful - Spanish teams.
The most off the hook for now is Real Madrid. But, as always, football is about performance and sensations and everything can change between now and the end of the course. It will be up to you to decide which of the trio is the best: Courtois, Ter Stegen or Oblak?