Squad No: 1
Position: Goalkeeper
Age: 29
Birth Date: May 20, 1981
Birth Place: Mostoles, Spain
Height: 6' 1'' (1.85m)
Weight: 187 lbs (85 kg)
Club: Real Madrid (Spain)
International Caps: 103
Club History
Real Madrid (ESP): 2000-
Real Madrid B (ESP): 1999-1999
Real Madrid (ESP): 1999-1999
Real Madrid C (ESP): 1998-1999
Real Madrid (ESP): 1997-1998
from Wikipedia (full wiki)
Iker Casillas Fernández Spanish pronunciation: ['iker ka'si?as]; is a Spanish football goalkeeper who plays for the Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and serves as captain for the Spanish national team. He is currently first-choice goalkeeper for both club and country and serves as a vice captain for his club. As captain of the national side, he led a young Spanish team to their first European Championship in 44 years, his first senior international honour.
Since bursting onto the scene as a teenager, Casillas has been recognised as one of the best goalkeepers in Europe, illustrated by the many awards he has received. He was ranked 4th in the 2008 European Footballer of the Year voting, and also the highest ranked goalkeeper in 2009. At the end of 2009 he was voted into the UEFA Team of the Year for the third consecutive time.
from ESPN SoccerNet
Captain of his country and a hero to millions of Madridistas, Casillas also has a strong claim to the title of the finest goalkeeper of his generation. The Real Madrid icon has won tournaments with his country at Under-15, U-17 and U-19 level, but his crowning glory was lifting the Euro 2008 trophy on behalf of his team-mates. Casillas first donned the number one shirt on a regular basis after Santiago Canizares was forced out of the 2002 World Cup squad, having smashed a bottle of aftershave on his foot, and he has been unchallenged ever since. Only Andoni Zubizarreta, with 126 appearances, has won more caps in goal for Spain.
Nicknamed San Iker ('Saint Iker') at Real Madrid, Casillas is a rare homegrown talent among a sea of galacticos having joined the club at the age of nine. He made his first-team debut under the current national coach, Vicente del Bosque, in the 1998-99 season and cemented his place the following year when becoming the youngest goalkeeper to appear in a Champions League final when beating Valencia just four days after his 19th birthday. A rare slump in form saw him dropped for the encounter with Bayer Leverkusen two years later but he appeared as a substitute in the second half in Glasgow and won the trophy for Real with a series of superb saves.
Casillas has been an established and respected member of the first XI ever since and has played a major role in Real's extensive success over the past decade - winning four La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues and the InterContinental Cup in 2002. A wonder-save against Sevilla in October only confirmed the suspicion that Casillas will go down in the history books as one of the finest goalkeepers in the history of the game.
He is in bullish mood ahead of a tournament that has the potential to see the Spanish team he leads with great pride confirm their reputation as one of the great international sides of the modern era.
"We have the perfect group going into this World Cup and the truth is we will fear no one," he says. "This team has already beaten so many of our big rivals in South Africa in England, Italy, Germany and Argentina, so we are going into the tournament believing we have a big chance. To be World and European champions at the same moment is a dream for all of us."
Strengths: As the last line of defence in a team that often pays scant regard to such an art, Casillas gets plenty of practice and frequently demonstrates his impressive reflexes, superb agility and innate ability to pull off a spectacular save. His forceful personality and will to win ensure he is a born leader.
Weaknesses: His aura of invincibility has been slightly dented in recent years due to a handful of mistakes and he can be slightly rash when rushing off his line.
Career high: Having lost his place in the Real side for the 2001-02 Champions League final, Casillas came on as a substitute for the injured Cesar Sanchez and pulled off a string of fine saves to thwart Bayer Leverkusen. He has never looked back.
Career low: A humbling experience at the Bernabeu last season when arch rivals Barcelona smashed six past Casillas in May in a game that effectively clinched the league title for the Catalans.
Style: Energetic, extravagant, commanding, a leader from the back.
Quotes: "Iker is the perfect captain. I'd give him ten out of ten for everything he does as a keeper, a captain and in the way he behaves. He sees everything so clearly. The whole squad deserve a ten but Casillas more than anyone. As the captain he's the one I speak to the most. He's a phenomenon." Luis Aragones, June 2008.
Trivia: Casillas is very superstitious and every time Real Madrid score a goal he has to touch his own crossbar.
Soccernet says: His claim to be regarded as one of the best goalkeeper in world football has suffered a touch but South Africa could be the perfect stage for Casillas to put his rivals in their place.
from FIFA.com
The latest in a long line of Spanish goalkeeping greats is La Roja captain Iker Casillas, whose agility, speed, reflexes and cool head in one-on-one situations have earned him the nickname ‘San Iker' (Saint Iker) at club side Real Madrid.
Born on 20 May 1981, Casillas earned his first call-up for the Madrid first-team at the age of just 17, having come all the way up through the youth ranks at the Spanish giants. And it was current national-team coach Vicente del Bosque who gave the custodian his top-flight debut in 1998/99, with Casillas making the Los Blancos' No1 jersey his own the following campaign and contributing to victory in the 1999/00 UEFA Champions League.
A winner with Spain at the 1999 edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Nigeria, in 2000 Casillas was also voted Europe's best player under the age of 21, though it would be Madrid's 2001/02 Champions League success (the club's ninth win in the competition) that would cement his status among the world's finest shot-stoppers. Having lost his starting place to the more experienced Cesar Sanchez after a rare period of uncertainty, Casillas replaced the injured Cesar late on in the final in Glasgow and proceeded to thwart the Bayer Leverkusen onslaught with a series of phenomenal saves.
Since then Casillas's No1 status for club and country has never been in doubt, with the player travelling to two editions of the FIFA World Cup (Korea/Japan 2002 and Germany 2006) and three UEFA EUROs (Belgium and the Netherlands 2000, Portugal 2004 and Austria and Switzerland 2008) since making his La Roja debut in June 2000.
And though the highlight of his international career is clearly Spain's win at EURO 2008, which ended the country's 44-year major trophy drought, two instances of penalty-shootout excellence also spring to mind. Against Republic of Ireland in the Round of 16 at Korea/Japan 2002, two Casillas saves sent his team to the last eight, while against Spain's bogey team and reigning world champions Italy at EURO 2008, the Madrid man again saved twice to book a semi-final berth and pave the way for an eventual Spanish victory.
Perhaps surprisingly for a man at the very top of his profession, Casillas's feet remain very much on the ground. Modest and easy-going off the pitch, he never forgets his roots in the working-class Madrid suburb of Mostoles and devotes much of his time to charitable causes.
Real - The Movie
Iker Casillas Signed Real Madrid Photo
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